Sharma A, Kumar S, Panda PK, Yadav S, Kalita D. Emerging leishmaniasis in southern Himalayas: A mini-review. World J Clin Infect Dis 2023; 13(2): 11-23 [DOI: 10.5495/wjcid.v13.i2.11]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Prasan Kumar Panda, MBBS, MD, Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Sixth Floor, College Block, Rishikesh 249203, India. motherprasanna@rediffmail.com
Research Domain of This Article
Infectious Diseases
Article-Type of This Article
Minireviews
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Ashwani Sharma, Santosh Kumar, Department of Community and Family Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Rishikesh 249203, India
Prasan Kumar Panda, Department of Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Rishikesh 249203, India
Sweety Yadav, Department of Internal Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Rishikesh 249203, India
Deepjyoti Kalita, Department of Microbiology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Rishikesh 249203, India
Author contributions: All authors made substantial contributions to conception and design, acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; took part in drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; agreed to submit to the current journal; gave final approval of the version to be published; and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Prasan Kumar Panda, MBBS, MD, Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Sixth Floor, College Block, Rishikesh 249203, India. motherprasanna@rediffmail.com
Received: September 28, 2022 Peer-review started: September 28, 2022 First decision: November 22, 2022 Revised: November 28, 2022 Accepted: April 27, 2023 Article in press: April 27, 2023 Published online: May 29, 2023
Abstract
Leishmaniasis is a vector-borne parasitic disease affecting millions of people worldwide. However, in the last decade, the number of cases has been reduced from well-documented endemic parts, but sporadic cases have been reported widely from various non-endemic areas, especially from the southern Himalayan zone. This raises concerns about the emergence of new ecological niches. This warrants a critical evaluation of key factors causing this rapid spread and possibly indigenous transmission. This mini-review article is aimed to briefly address the parasite, the vector, and the environmental aspects in the transmission of leishmaniasis in these new foci against a background of worldwide endemic leishmaniasis with a special focus on the southern Himalayan zone. As the lack of knowledge about the causative parasites, vectors, reservoir hosts, atypical presentations, and their management make the problem serious and may lead to the emergence of public health issues. The present works also reviewed the existing information regarding clinical variations, diagnostic methods, treatment, its outcome, and ignite for further research in these aspects of the disease.
Core Tip: This mini-review article is aimed to briefly address the parasite, the vector, and the environmental aspects in the transmission of leishmaniasis in these new foci against a background of worldwide endemic leishmaniasis with a special focus on the southern Himalayan zone.
