Infectivity of Post-Kala-azar Dermal Leishmaniasis Patients to Sand Flies: Revisiting a Proof of Concept in the Context of the Kala-azar Elimination Program in the Indian Subcontinent

Ricardo Molina; Debashis Ghosh; Eugenia Carrillo; Séverine Monnerat; Caryn Bern; Dinesh Mondal; Jorge Alvar

doi:10.1093/cid/cix245

Infectivity of Post-Kala-azar Dermal Leishmaniasis Patients to Sand Flies: Revisiting a Proof of Concept in the Context of the Kala-azar Elimination Program in the Indian Subcontinent

Clin Infect Dis. 2017 Jul 1;65(1):150-153. doi: 10.1093/cid/cix245.

Authors

Ricardo Molina¹, Debashis Ghosh², Eugenia Carrillo³, Séverine Monnerat⁴, Caryn Bern⁵, Dinesh Mondal², Jorge Alvar⁴

Affiliations

¹ World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Leishmaniasis, Laboratory of Medical Entomology, National Centre for Microbiology, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain.
² International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), Dhaka.
³ World Health Organization Collaborating Center for Leishmaniasis, Laboratory of Leishmaniasis and Chagas, National Centre for Microbiology, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain.
⁴ Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative, Geneva, Switzerland.
⁵ Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco.

Abstract

We compared xenodiagnosis with quantitative polymerase chain reaction in skin biopsies from 3 patients with maculopapular or nodular post-kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis (PKDL). All patients infected sand flies. Parasite loads in skin varied from 1428 to 63 058 parasites per microgram. PKDL detection and treatment are important missing components of the kala-azar elimination program.

Keywords: control; leishmaniasis; post–kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis; xenodiagnosis.

MeSH terms

Adult
Animals
DNA, Protozoan / analysis
DNA, Protozoan / genetics
Female
Humans
India
Leishmania donovani* / genetics
Leishmania donovani* / pathogenicity
Leishmaniasis, Visceral* / diagnosis
Leishmaniasis, Visceral* / parasitology
Leishmaniasis, Visceral* / transmission
Male
Polymerase Chain Reaction
Psychodidae / parasitology*
Skin / parasitology
Xenodiagnosis
Young Adult

Substances

DNA, Protozoan