English: Black fever; Dumdum fever.
Names: kala-azar; Black fever; Dumdum fever
Leishmaniasis is an infection with protozoan parasites of the genus Leishmania, like Leishmania donovani. The first stage is ulcer on the skin, often the face. A later stage is visceral leishmaniasis, with fever, weight loss, fatigue, anemia, and substantial swelling of the liver and spleen, often leading to death due to pneumonia, tuberculosis, AIDS, or dysentery and opportunistic infections. Progress of the disease is extremely variable, from one to twenty weeks. After healing a post kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis, or PKDL can develop. with small, measle-like skin lesions on the face, which gradually increase in size and spread over the body, forming disfiguring, swollen structures resembling leprosy, and occasionally causing blindness if they spread to the eyes.
Incidence: ± 300,000 infections each year worldwide.
DD: malaria.