Human visceral leishmaniasis, one of the most important zoonoses, is caused by the protozoa Leishmania chagasi (syn. L. infantum) and is present as a fatal disease common in South America and Europe where dogs and wild canids are the main reservoirs. A vaccine against visceral leishmaniasis would be an important tool in the control of this disease in dogs. Although the current strategies for va...

Leishmania specific Th1/Th2 cells have been identified in humans as well as in mice. There is a correlation between the clinical outcome of the infection and the cytokine response profile. Generally, the production of Th2 cytokines leads to severe infection, whereas the production of Th1 cytokines leads to subclinical or mild infections. In mice, an infection leads to a polarisation of either T...

Leishmania parasites cause a spectrum of diseases that afflict the populations of 88 countries around the world and all attempts to control leishmaniasis have failed. It seems that preparing a vaccine may be the final solution. The aim of this study was to determine various Leishmania (L.) major antigens vaccine candidates and effects of the vaccine on delayed type hypersensitivity (DTH). Many ...

We assessed the prevalence of post-kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis (PKDL), a late cutaneous manifestation of visceral leishmaniasis (VL), in 16 VL-endemic communities in Bihar, India. The prevalence of confirmed PKDL cases was 4.4 per 10 000 individuals and 7.8 if probable cases were also considered. The clinical history and treatment of the post-kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis cases are discussed.

1 Infectious Diseases and Immunology Division, Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, 4 Raja, S. C. Mullick Road, Kolkata-32, West Bengal Kolkata 700032, India 2Faculty of Medicine, Addis Ababa University, P. O. Box 28017-1000, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 3Departamento de Bioloǵıa Molecular Centro de Bioloǵıa Molecular “Severo Ochoa” C/ Nicolás Cabrera, 1 Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 28049 Madrid, ...

Instead of relying on drugs to reduce the parasitic burden of leishmaniasis and waiting for the effecter immune response to develop in time to control the parasities, immunotherapy in conjugation with chemotherapy can rapidly induce the effector immune response. With a safe and potent drug plus an affordable therapeutic vaccine, which remains to be developed, a single visit by patient with leis...

BACKGROUND Novel vaccination approaches are needed to prevent leishmaniasis. Live attenuated vaccines are the gold standard for protection against intracellular pathogens such as Leishmania and there have been new developments in this field. The nonpathogenic to humans lizard protozoan parasite, Leishmania (L) tarentolae, has been used effectively as a vaccine platform against visceral leishman...

During 12 months of follow-up in a randomized double-blind controlled field study, a killed whole-promastigote vaccine cocktail plus bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) adjuvant significantly reduced the incidence of cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) in Ecuadorian children, compared with BCG alone. To determine how much longer protection might continue, the study was reblinded to permit 48 additional mont...