To the Editor: A sharp increase in suspected visceral leishmaniasis (VL or kala-azar) cases was reported in April through May 2000 in three Kenyan refugee camps (Ifo, Dagahaley, and Hagadera). Located around Dadaab town in Northeastern Province, the three camps house an estimated 125,000 Somali refugees. VL outbreaks have been well documented in five distinct foci in Kenya (1,2), but until this...

  Background Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is most commonly found among children under the age of 10 in some provinces of Iran including Ardabil. As such, this study set out to determine the relationship between some climatic factors and the prevalence of VL in Northwest of Iran. Materials and Methods In this descriptive-analytic study, data collection was done on some climatic factors including ...

Enteric fever(l) and Kala-azar (vis-ceral leishmaniasis) are endemic, in and around Patna. Kala-azar usually has an indolent course but it can present as an acute disease with fever, anorexia and vomiting(2,3). At times both the diseases are so closely similar in their presentation , that differential diagnosis is not always clear, Widal test, inspite of its limitations and fallacies is still w...

Post-kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis (PKDL) occurs after kala-azar treatment and acts as a durable infection reservoir. On the basis of active case finding among 22,699 respondents, 813 (3.6%) had had kala-azar since 2002, of whom 79 (9.7%) developed PKDL. Eight additional patients with PKDL had no history of kala-azar. Annual kala-azar incidence peaked at 85 cases per 10,000 person-years in 200...

Malaria complicating kala-azar That malaria may complicate kala-azar was recognized by the early workers on kala-azar in this country. Napier (1927) remarked that plasmodial and leishmanial infection must copyist in t.^e same r^fip-nt verv froouent.lv. but the occasions on which both parasites would be found in the same film of either peripheral blood or spleen puncture material were few. Malar...

This supplement presents a collection of studies that were undertaken in India and Nepal on the burden of visceral leishmaniasis (VL), investigating issues related to the epidemiology and economic impact of the disease. Since 2005, the governments of India, Nepal and Bangladesh are engaged in a collaborative effort to control and eliminate visceral leishmaniasis from the Indian subcontinent. Wi...

Kala-azar has re-emerged from near eradication. The annual estimate for the incidence and prevalence of kala-azar cases worldwide is 0.5 million and 2.5 million, respectively. Of these, 90% of the confirmed cases occur in India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sudan. In India, it is a serious problem in Bihar, West Bengal and eastern Uttar Pradesh where there is under-reporting of kala-azar and post kala...

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE Definitive diagnosis of kala-azar requires demonstration of parasites by diagnostic protocols based on invasive organ aspirations. We evaluated in the present study the diagnostic utility of an immunochromatographic test (ICT) for detection of anti- rK-39 antibodies for the non-invasive diagnosis of kala-azar and post kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis (PKDL) at a tertiary ca...

BACKGROUND Visceral leishmaniasis, commonly known as kala-azar in India, is a global public health problem. In Southeast Asia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand are endemic for visceral leishmaniasis. The role of sandflies as the vector of kala-azar was first confirmed in 1942 in India. Insecticide resistance in Phlebotomus argentipes Annandale and Brunetti, the vector of...