Leishmania There are two important species: 1. Leishmania Braziliensis 2. Leishmania Donovani Le Lei eish shm hman ania ia Bra raz aazzi ziliilie ien ens ns nsis is: s: Transmission: 1. Host: Vertebrates, especially humans 2. Vector: Sandfly Disease: Cutaneous Leishmaniasis 1. Parasite consumes flesh of victim 2. Causes disfiguring ulcers Lab Diagnosis: Aspirations from following show intracellular amastigotes in macrophages: 1. 2. 3. 4. Bone Marrow Spleen Lymph nodes Skin lesions Le Lei eishma man an ania Don ono no nova van vaaan ni: niii: It occurs in: 1. Mediterranean 2. Middle East 3. Africa Disease: Visceral Leishmaniasis: 1. Also called Black fever or Kala-azar 2. Hyperpigmented lesions 3. Affects following organs: a. Bone marrow i. Leads to pancytopenia b. Liver i. Leads to Hepatomegaly c. Spleen i. Leads to splenomegaly 4. Weakness Treatment: 1. Stibogluconate a. For cutaneous leishmaniasis 2. Amphotericin B a. For visceral lesihmaniasis Life Cycle: It has following forms: 1. Promastigote 2. Amastigote (4) Amastigote transforms into promastigote and replicates in sandfly (1) Sandfly bites and injects promastigotes in the blood (3) Sandfly bites and ingests infected macrophages (2) Promastigotes convert into amastigote in macrophages