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Visceral leishmaniasis

About: Visceral leishmaniasis is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 7486 publications have been published within this topic receiving 184865 citations. The topic is also known as: Kala-Azar & viscus leishmaniasis.


Papers
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Peripheral blood mononuclear cell subsets, in vitro lymphoproliferative response to leishmanial antigen, and Leishmania-specific serum antibody levels were examined in 11 dogs, naturally infected with L. infantum, and 9 healthy control dogs and levels returned to those observed during CVL.

108 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The overall results obtained demonstrate that the simultaneous evaluation of parasites and cytokine levels represents a reliable tool for predicting disease development, and thus for choosing the best treatment for the asymptomatic form of the disease.

108 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Evaluation of rapid diagnostic tests for confirmation of VL disease finds that PCR is usually highly sensitive for detection of leishmanial infection, but this does not mean PCR will be useful for the confirmation of acute Vl disease in patients in endemic areas, as many carriers of the infection in these areas will be PCRpositive without developing VL Disease.
Abstract: Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is a severe infectious disease caused by a protozoan parasite: Leishmania donovani in East Africa and the Indian subcontinent and Leishmania infantum in Latin America and the Mediterranean basin. Not all leishmanial infections lead to overt clinical disease, but in those infected persons who do develop the disease, multiplication of the parasite in the reticulo-endothelial system causes prolonged fever, anaemia, hepatosplenomegaly and weight loss. VL is fatal if it is not adequately treated. The drugs currently used to treat VL can have severe side effects and the clinical presentation of VL is not sufficiently specific to guide treatment. Highly accurate (both sensitive and specific), cheap and simple rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) are therefore crucial for case-management of VL. Early case detection followed by adequate treatment is also central to control of VL because, as yet, no vaccine is available and the long-term impact of vector control is unclear. Although the need for accurate VL diagnostics is obvious, innovation in this field has been slow. Since the 1980s, the main objective of VL diagnostics development has been to replace the direct demonstration of parasites in tissue smears, a technique that is invasive and requires considerable expertise, by a ‘field test’ that is more appropriate for use in a VL-endemic context. Several serological tests have been developed, but none are specific for VL disease as such, although they have proved useful in combination with a clinical case definition. New diagnostic tools are needed for more than just the confirmation of VL disease. No alternatives to parasitological methods are yet available to establish test of cure in treated VL patients. Clinicians do not have the tools to distinguish re-infection from relapse in cases of recurrence, and control programmes do not have validated assays for the surveillance of drug resistance in parasites. Furthermore, in the context of the VL elimination initiative, it would be desirable to have better markers of leishmanial infection at the population level. Any evaluation of a new diagnostic device should carefully identify its intended purpose. Too often developers and researchers confuse a device for the detection of leishmanial infection with a device for the confirmation of VL disease, and this is particularly the case for nucleic-acidbased assays. PCR is usually highly sensitive for detection of leishmanial infection, but this does not mean PCR will be useful for the confirmation of acute VL disease in patients in endemic areas, as many carriers of the infection in these areas will be PCRpositive without developing VL disease. This article will focus specifically on the evaluation of RDTs for confirmation of VL disease.

108 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The data showed that after i.v. administration of 500,000 parasites of the L. infantum M/CAN/ES/96/BCN150 strain, zymodeme MON-1, the animals became infected as suggested by the humoral response against the parasite antigens, but the immunized dogs were not only normal at the clinical but also at the anatomo-pathological level.

108 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The clinical picture is dependent on determinants related to the infecting species of Leishmania and the host, including infectivity, virulence of the parasite, extent of lymphatic and hematogenous spread in addition to immune response, and genetic susceptibility of the host.

107 citations


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Performance
Metrics
No. of papers in the topic in previous years
YearPapers
2023192
2022442
2021269
2020285
2019286
2018253