The author has calculated the role of such insects (phlebotomus) in the spread of the disease. He concluded that from 172,000 phlebotomi biting human beings only one has the probability of being infective and the phlebotomi must become infective by biting such dogs and not by biting human beings. Having been told that some cases of kala-azar have occurred in a country town, Coviltra, at a 2,000...

Leishmaniasis is a major health problem worldwide, with several countries reporting cases of leishmaniasis resulting in loss of human life or a lifelong stigma because of bodily scars. The Middle East is endemic for cutaneous leishmaniasis, with countries like Syria reporting very high incidence of the disease. Despite several countries establishing national control programs for containing the ...

Leishmaniasis is a neglected vector-borne disease with a global prevalence of over 12 million cases and 59,000 annual deaths. Transmission of the parasite requires salivary proteins, including LJL143 from the New World sandfly Lutzomyia longipalpis. LJL143 is a known marker of sandfly exposure in zoonotic hosts. LJL143 was crystallized from soluble protein expressed using Pichia pastoris. X-ray...

This study investigated the sandfly fauna of two quartzite caves in the Espinhaço Mountain Range, located in the municipality of Diamantina, state Minas Gerais. From August 2010-July 2011, entomological sampling was performed in the caves of Salitre and Monte Cristo with two HP light traps exposed in the photic and aphotic zones of each cave. The sandfly fauna consisted of 17 species, among whi...

The genus Phlebovirus of the family Bunyaviridae contains a number of emerging virus species which pose a threat to both human and animal health. Most prominent members include Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV), sandfly fever Naples virus (SFNV), sandfly fever Sicilian virus (SFSV), Toscana virus (TOSV), Punta Toro virus (PTV), and the two new members severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome vi...

Studies on the sandfly fauna to evaluate natural infection indexes are still limited in the Brazilian Amazon, a region with an increasing incidence of cutaneous leishmaniasis. Here, by using a multiplex polymerase chain reaction directed to Leishmania kDNA and hybridisation, we were able to identify L. (Viannia) subgenus in 12 out of 173 sandflies captured in the municipality of Rio Branco, Acr...

1Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Kuwait, Kuwait. Received: 28/04/02; accepted: 01/12/02 ABSTRACT Diseases caused by dengue, sandfly fever and hanta viruses pose a major health risk in many countries. We determined the threat of these arboviral infections through a serological survey for antibodies using enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) based tests. Hantav...

Toscana virus (TOSV) is an arthropod-borne phlebovirus belonging to the Sandfly fever Naples virus species (genus Phlebovirus, family Bunyaviridae). Here, we report the complete coding sequences of six TOSV strains isolated from human patients having acquired the infection in southeastern France during a 12-year period.

Sandfly fever, also known as Pappataci fever or phlebotomus fever is an interesting disease mimicking other conditions which causes fever, myalgia and malaise along with abnormalities in liver enzymes and hematological test results [1]. Without suspicion of the disease itself or a presence of an epidemic, it is very hard to diagnose this disease in a non-endemic area, particularly if it is trav...