Abstract:
Leishmaniasis (cutaneous, mucocutaneous, and visceral) is caused by an intracellular
protozoan parasite complex by the invasion of the reticuloendothelial system (spleen,
liver and bone marrow). Leishmaniasis is a zoonotic parasitic disease caused by a
protozoan parasite of genus Leishmania (Schuster and Sullivan, 2002) and accounts for
approximately 40,000 deaths per year (Guerin et al., 2002). It is a poverty-related disease
affecting the poorest of the poor and is associated with malnutrition, displacement, poor
housing, and illiteracy, and gender discrimination, weakness of the immune system and
lack of resources. Leishmaniasis is an ancient disease that may have been historically
portrayed in figures, papyrus, statues and ceramics, and has been discussed from analysis
of mummified human remains and archaeological findings (Altamirano-Enciso et al.,
2003). The discovery of a chronic ulcer that heals over time has been cited under several
names; however, the description of Visceral Leishmaniasis (VL) from historical papers is
absent. Nevertheless, the identification of New World Leishmaniasis was facilitated by
descriptions of a typical mucosa lesion, which was common among pre-Colombian
inhabitants. Leishmania belongs to the phylum Euglenozoa and class Kinetoplastida,
which lacks a fossil record. Molecular studies have shown that kinetoplastids are
probably related to the euglenids (Dooijes et al., 2000). Both belong to the eukaryote
supergroup Excavata, whose fossils suggest their appearance during the Ordovician
period (Roger and Hug, 2006). In the Old World, Indian physicians applied the Sanskrit
term kala-azar (meaning ‘black fever’) to an ancient disease later defined as VL. It was
first noticed in Jessore in India in 1824, when patients suffering from fevers that were
thought to be due to malaria failed to respond to quinine. In 1901, Sir William Boog
Leishman (1865–1926) identified certain organisms in smears taken from the spleen of a
patient who had died from "dum-dum fever". Initially, these organisms were considered
to be trypanosomes, but in 1903 Charles Donovan (1863–1951) described them as being
new. The link between these organisms and kala azar was eventually discovered by
Ronald Ross, who named them Leishmania donovani in memory of these two
researchers. In 1921, brothers Edouard and Etienne Sergent succeeded in proving that the vector for transmission of Leishmania parasites to mammals is the sand fly of the genus
Phlebotomus. Swaminath et al (Swaminath et al., 2006) proved using human volunteers
that the Leishmania parasite could be transmitted by Phlebotomus sandflies in the Old
World. In 1922, it was found that Lutzomyia is the vector of New World Leishmaniasis
by Ralph Lainson and his colleagues (Cox, 2002).