Leishmania tropica

 

Images:

Skin lesion:

LeishmaniasisCutaneous

 

Rhinophymous Leishmaniasis: A New Variant – from Medscape Infectious Diseases
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/704662?src=mp&spon=3&uac=40240FX

 

Phylogeny:                              Order Kinetoplastida

 

Preferred definitive host:                   Humans

 

Reservoir hosts:                      Dogs, rodents

 

Intermediate/vector hosts:                 Phlebotomus spp. sandflies

 

Geographical location:            West-Central Africa, Mediterranean

                                                          region, India, South America,

                                                          Central America, Ethiopia

 

Organs affected:                      Reticuloendothelial system, skin

 

Symptoms:                              Ulcers and sores on skin

 

Treatment:                               Antimony sodium gluconate.  Frequently

                                                          self-healing with lasting immunity.

 

From Newsday.com:

 

Skin Disease Strikes U.S. Troops in Iraq

 

December 8, 2003, 7:37 AM EST

 

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The Army's 101st Airborne Division has sent 20 soldiers to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington for treatment for a skin disease transmitted by bites from sand flies in Iraq, the military said.

 

Another 10 to 20 soldiers from the division stationed in Mosul in northern Iraq are under observation for the illness, called leishmaniasis, said Maj. Trey Cate, a division spokesman. The 101st Airborne Division is based at Fort

Campbell, Ky.

 

"We are concerned about the health and welfare of the soldiers, hence we have evacuated them to a major medical center where this disease that does not exist in the U.S. can be treated by the experts and studied in ways that are impossible in the field," Cate said Sunday in an e-mail to The Associated Press.

 

The disease is known as "Baghdad Boil" to U.S. soldiers in Iraq, and can leave disfiguring lesions on the skin for months.

 

Cate said the U.S. military took measures against the sand flies before deploying soldiers in Iraq, issuing insect repellent to soldiers and impregnating their uniforms and insect netting with permethrin, an insecticide.

 

Leishmaniasis is more common in rural than urban areas, but is found on the outskirts of some cities, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Risk is highest between dusk and dawn. Vaccines and drugs for preventing infections are not currently available.

 

About 150 U.S. soldiers serving in Iraq have been diagnosed with leishmaniasis and more may have been infected with the disease, according to U.S. newspaper reports. The disease can take months to incubate.

 

Copyright © 2003, The Associated Press