•°Introduction:
Leishmaniasis is a parasitic disease caused by the Leishmania parasite. This parasite typically lives in infected female phlebotomine sand flies. You can contract leishmaniasis from bite of an infected sand fly.
~Different leishmania parasites associated with human infection:
a.Leishmania donovani is causetive agent of kala azar.
b.Leishmania tropica is causetive agent of cutaneous leishmaniasis.
c.Leishmania braziliensis is causetive agent of
Muco-cutaneous leishmaniasis.
•° Incubation period :
10 days to 2 years
( generally 1-4 months )
•° Symptoms :
1.kala azar (VL) :Fever , headache splenomegaly, darkening of skin, anaemia, fatigue
2. Cutaneous leishmaniasis :Painfull ulcers on legs, arms, face. and it also called by anthroponotic and zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis.
3. Muco-cutaneous leishmaniasis :Sore ulcers on mucous membrane of nose, mouth and throat.
•° Laboratorial Diagnosis :
Sample acquisition: Biopsy, punch or scraping of lesion fragments for CL; biopsy or aspiration from bone lymph spleen for VL; serum for antibody detection of both clinical forms.
1.Microscopy :Based on visualization amastigotes with Giemsa hematoxylin and eosin stains upon microscopic examination of tissue specimens
2.In vitro and in vivo isolation :Promastigotes can be medium using a blood agar base. Inoculation grown in a biphasic of mice or hamsters can also result parasite isolation
3.Antibody detection : Mainly used for VL. The techniques are ELISA, recombinant antigens, most commonly used RDT and ICT (based on mainly rK39) for VL. For CL, ELISA and Western Blot are used
4.Molecular diagnosis : Based mainly on DNA amplification by PCR. The most commonly used techniques for detection and typing are PCR-RFLP, real- time PCR, DNA sequencing and LAMP
5.In vivo immune response : Leishmania skin test type hypersensitivity parasite. This is used measures delayed- to antigens of the for diagnosis of CL.
•° Prevention and control :
✓ Early Diagnosis and treatment
✓ Effective disease surveillance
✓ Social mobilization and strengthening partnership
✓ Control of animal reservoir hosts
✓ Vector control
