Visceral leishmaniasis in the New World & Africa.

ABSTRACT

Visceral leishmaniasis in the New World, primarily found in northeastern Brazil, is caused by Leishmania chagasi. Compared to India, unusual features of Brazilian disease are the large number of asymptomatic infections versus symptomatic infections, and the apparent change from a zoonotic disease to a partially anthroponotic one. Visceral disease in Africa is caused by L. donovani as in India, but disease differs from that in India in being zoonotic rather than anthroponotic, and in the large numbers of patients who acquire post-kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis.