INTRODUCTION Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) coinfection with Leishmania infantum or Leishmania donovani, the agents of visceral leishmaniasis (or kala-azar), has become a fatal public health problem in the tropics where kala-azar is endemic. METHODS The clinical presentation of patients with HIV and L. infantum coinfection is described using two unique databases that together produce the ...

We compared xenodiagnosis with quantitative polymerase chain reaction in skin biopsies from 3 patients with maculopapular or nodular post-kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis (PKDL). All patients infected sand flies. Parasite loads in skin varied from 1428 to 63 058 parasites per microgram. PKDL detection and treatment are important missing components of the kala-azar elimination program.

BACKGROUND Studies performed over the past decade have identified fairly consistent epidemiological patterns of risk factors for visceral leishmaniasis (VL) in the Indian subcontinent. METHODS AND PRINCIPAL FINDINGS To inform the current regional VL elimination effort and identify key gaps in knowledge, we performed a systematic review of the literature, with a special emphasis on data regard...

Visceral leishmaniasis or kala-azar is an endemic parasitic disease in some parts of the world which is characterized by fever, splenomegaly, and pancytopenia in most of the cases. Herein we report an 11 month-old male infant with diagnosis of kala-azar who presented with pallor, hepatosplenomegaly, failure to gain weight, and no history of fever. Surprisingly, fever started after beginning of ...

Introduction.?About eighteen months ago, we (Napier and Sen, 1940) published a preliminary paper on the treatment of kala-azar by 4 : 4'-diamidino stilbene. At the time our paper was sent to press, there were in the literature? that had arrived in this country?only two detailed reports on cases treated by this drug (Adams and Yorke, 1939; and Adler and Rachmilewitz, 1939). Since then a small sp...

BACKGROUND Visceral leishmaniasis (VL), commonly known as kala-azar is a systemic disease caused by parasitic protozoan species of genus Leishmania and transmitted by species of Phlebotomus (sand flies). It is a poverty-related disease and associated with malnutrition, displacement, poor housing, weakness of the immune system and lack of resources. For the success of prevention and control prog...

Kala-azar as a distinct clinical entity has been recognized in this country for about a century. A number of epidemics occurred in Bengal, and though it was in early stages confused with malaria, failure to respond to specific treatment led to the establishment of its separate entity. This was confirmed in 1903 by the discovery of Leishman-Donovan bodies? the causative organism, by W. B. Leishm...

BACKGROUND Known as 'neglected disease' because relatively little effort has been applied to finding cures, leishmaniasis kills more than 150,000 people every year and debilitates millions more. Visceral leishmaniasis (VL), also called Kala Azar (KA) or black fever in India, claims around 20,000 lives every year. Whole genome analysis presents an excellent means to identify new targets for drug...

Pathogenesis in kala-azar is associated with depressed cellular immunity and significant elevation of antileishmanial antibodies. Since these antibodies are present even after cure, analysis of the parasite-specific isotypes and immunoglobulin G (IgG) subclasses in kala-azar patients may shed new light on the immune responses during progression and resolution of infection. Using leishmanial mem...