Leishmaniasis

A future problem for the UK?

Leishmaniasis is caused by Leishmania spp., protozoan parasites transmitted primarily by phlebotomine sandflies. The lifecycle alternates between two forms:

• Promastigotes, which live in the gut of the sandfly and are injected into the mammalian host during a blood meal, and

• Amastigotes, which survive and multiply inside macrophages in the host’s skin, bon…