What Is Leishmaniasis?

All You Need To Know About The Disease

Leishmaniasis is a parasitic disease which is spread by the bite of sand flies infected with the protozoa Leishmania Donovani. There are a number of types of protozoa like L. Donovani, L. Infantum, L. Chagasi, L. Mexicana which can cause leishmaniasis. A visit to the beach always guarantees a couple of bites but some of those may turn out to be a deadly form of leishmaniasis. The most common forms of it are the cutaneous which characterized by soreness of the skin.

Visceral leishmaniasis is much more dangerous and it acts deep in the body and affects some of the internal organs of the body like the spleen, liver, bone marrow. People affected with cutaneous leishmaniasis have sores which can change in size and color over a period of time and gets severe with lack of treatment or undiagnosed condition. At their acute stages it looks like volcano eruptions like a ring or a crater like appearance and color ranging from a harsh red to a yellow or orange.

The four main types of leishmaniasis are mucocutaneous Leishmaniasis which comprises of skin ulcers spreading from nose and mouth areas, diffuse cutaneous characterized by skin lesions resembling leprosy, cutaneous is the most common with numerous skin sores developing a longtime after the initial bite and usually leave life long scars and visceral Leishmaniasis is the most serious form of the disease and can lead to sure death if left untreated due to secondary infection.

Sand fly's are usually as harmful as a mosquito bite but potentially life threatening if they are infected with the parasite which causes the disease. As of now there has been vaccine developed to combat the disease. The sand flys get the parasite from biting rodents like rats and they act as an carrier agent transferring the parasite to the human body. It us usually abut a quarter of the size of a mosquito and is difficult to see. It is identifiable by the seven segmented body and long legs. They can jump to great heights of 40cms but usually attacks victims who are lying down and the bites are usually seen in clumps around the ankles. Hence it is virtually very rare to see a sand fly bite in the upper body. Sand flies are most active during the night time and the percentage of contracting an infection from a single infected sand fly is a hundred!

People are at risk for leishmaniasis irrespective of their ages and especially susceptible if they live or travel to areas where leishmaniasis is highly prevalent. Adventure travelers, bird watchers, researchers, peace workers and unwary holiday travelers are usually the ones to get infected. About 88 countries in the world in the tropics and sub-tropics are places of high risk. These places are usually areas of high tourist interest like the rain forests in Central and South America to the dry deserts in Asia.

90% of the world's cases of visceral leishmaniasis are from Asian countries like India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sudan, and from south American countries like Brazil, Argentina, Africa and also the middle east. Leishmaniasis is not prevalent in the countries along the pacific like Australia etc.

While Leishmaniasis is not as widely known as a killer disease like malaria, it is equally painful and dangerous as malaria or dengue. Other protozoan parasites which the sand flys may carry are pappataci fever and carrions disease.