Post-Kala-Azar Dermal Leishmaniasis as a Reservoir for Visceral Leishmaniasis Transmission

Epke A Le Rutte; Eduard E Zijlstra; Sake J de Vlas

doi:10.1016/j.pt.2019.06.007

Post-Kala-Azar Dermal Leishmaniasis as a Reservoir for Visceral Leishmaniasis Transmission

Trends Parasitol. 2019 Aug;35(8):590-592. doi: 10.1016/j.pt.2019.06.007. Epub 2019 Jun 29.

Authors

Epke A Le Rutte¹, Eduard E Zijlstra², Sake J de Vlas³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Public Health, Erasmus MC, University Medical Center Rotterdam, P.O. Box 2040, 3000 CA Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Socinstrasse 57, Basel 4002, Switzerland; University of Basel, Basel 4003, Switzerland. Electronic address: e.lerutte@erasmusmc.nl.
² Rotterdam Centre for Tropical Medicine, Bovenstraat 21, 3077 BB Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
³ Department of Public Health, Erasmus MC, University Medical Center Rotterdam, P.O. Box 2040, 3000 CA Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

Abstract

Post-kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis (PKDL) is a parasitic skin infection which can occur after visceral leishmaniasis (VL). Recent xenodiagnosis studies (Mondal et al., Clin. Infect. Dis., 2018) have uncovered the infectiousness of PKDL. When including this in a transmission model, PKDL cases appear as an important reservoir of infection, likely frustrating the VL elimination efforts on the Indian subcontinent.

Keywords: elimination; post-kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis (PKDL); transmission dynamics; visceral leishmaniasis; xenodiagnosis.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Comment

MeSH terms

Animals
Leishmaniasis, Cutaneous*
Leishmaniasis, Visceral*
Psychodidae*