The Fevers of Africa: Leishmaniasis South of the Sahara

Abstract

Leishmaniasis was first described from India as the visceral form kala azar; since then this disease has been found to occur in China, Central Asia, Arabia, North Africa, the Sudan. Kenya and sporadically across Africa south of the Sahara to the West Coast. Different varieties of the disease have been described on clinical, epidemiological and parasitological grounds, but these differences are possibly caused by varying degrees of immunity in the human host and the differing habits of the sandfly vector.