Leishmaniasis

Certain bug bites might cause serious issues, such as leishmaniasis, which could lead to severe complications if it isn’t managed.

Leishmaniasis

Various types of Leishmania parasites cause a gathering of illnesses called leishmaniasis.

Leishmaniasis is located in parts of Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Mexico, and America, with different types in each region.

Types of leishmaniasis

• Cutaneous leishmaniasis: it’s an infection in the skin where the sand fly bites.
• Mucosal (mucocutaneous) leishmaniasis: it’s a complication of the cutaneous type.
• Visceral leishmaniasis: it affects the internal organs.

Causes of leishmaniasis

• Leishmaniasis occurs due to leishmania parasites, which live in human beings and animals.
• Leishmaniasis transmits through the bite of sand flies. Adding to that, it could transmit through shared needles, blood transfusions, and from the pregnant woman to her fetus.

Symptoms of leishmaniasis

• In cutaneous leishmaniasis, a bump manifests in the place where the sand fly bit the skin, and with time, it develops into an ulcer with a rough border and a sunken center, resembling a volcano.
• In mucosal leishmaniasis, the ulcers extend to the mucosal layer in the mouth, nose, or throat.
• In visceral leishmaniasis, symptoms involve elevated body temperature, chills, swollen lymph nodes, cold sweat, tiredness, weakness, enlarged spleen, and discolored skin patches.
• Severe or even life-threatening complications could occur as a result of leishmanial, such as bacterial infections, scarring, relapsing, septal perforation, pneumonia, infections in the gastrointestinal tract, severe bleeding, and sepsis.

Diagnosis of leishmaniasis

• Biopsy.
• Blood tests.

Treatment of leishmaniasis

• The faster leishmaniasis is diagnosed, the higher the cure rate, especially for the visceral and mucosal types.
• Leishmaniasis is treated with anti-parasitic drugs.
• Leishmania can be prevented by protecting yourself from getting bitten by the sand flies by covering the skin with clothes, applying a specific repellent to the exposed skin and clothes, covering the windows and doors, and sleeping under a specific net.