Home > Leishmaniasis

1 Epidemiology

It can be transmitted in many tropical and sub-tropical countries, although the preponderance of cases (more than 90 percent of the world's cases) occur in Bangladesh, Brazil, India, Nepal and Sudan.

Leishmaniasis is present in Iraq and was contracted by a number of the troops involved in the 2003 invasion of that country and the subsequent occupation. The soldiers nicknamed the disease the Baghdad boil.

The disease is not found in Australia or OceaniaFor the fictional superstate in George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four see Oceania (fiction . Oceania is a name used for varying groups of islands of the Pacific Ocean. In its narrow usage it refers to Polynesia (including New Zealand), Melanesia (inc.

2 Signs and symptoms

The symptoms of leishmaniasis are skin sores which erupt weeks to months after the person affected is bitten by sand flies. Other consequences, which can become manifest anywhere from a few months to years after infection, include fever, damage to the spleenThe spleen is a ductless, vertebrate gland that is not necessary for life but is closely associated with the circulatory system, where it functions in the destruction of old red blood cells and removal of other debris from the bloodstream, and also in hol and liverThe liver is an organ in vertebrates including humans. It plays a major role in metabolism and has a number of functions in the body including detoxification, glycogen storage and plasma protein synthesis. It also produces bile which is important for dige, and anaemia.

In the medical field, leishmaniasis is one of the famous causes of a markedly enlarged spleen (larger even than the liver). There are four main forms of leishmaniasis:

• Visceral leishmaniasis - the most serious form and potentially fatal if untreated.
• Cutaneous leishmaniasis - the most common form which causes numerous sores on the body, which heal within a few months leaving unpleasant looking scars.
• Diffuse cutaneous leishmaniasis - this form produces widespread skin lesions which resemble leprosy and is particularly difficult to treat.
• Mucocutaneous leishmaniasis - commences with skin ulcers which spread causing tissue damage to (particularly) nose and mouth

There are two common therapies containing antimonyAntimony is a chemical element in the periodic table that has the symbol Sb ( L. Stibium) and atomic number 51. A metalloid, antimony has four allotropic forms. The stable form of antimony is a blue-white metal. Yellow and black antimony are unstable non-, antimoniate de méglumine ( Glucantime ) and sodium stibogluconate ( Pentostam ). It is not completely understood how these drugs act against the parasite, possibly by disrupting its energy production or trypanothioneTrypanothione is a unusual form of glutathione that is found in parasitic protozoa such as leishmania and trypanosomes. These parasites are the cause of leishmaniasis and sleeping sickness, respectively. Trypanothione contains two molecules of glutathione metabolism.