Viscerotropic leishmaniasis in persons returning from Operation Desert Storm--1990-1991

From November 1990 through December 1991, seven men among the approximately 500,000 military personnel from the United States who participated in Operation Desert Storm had leishmaniasis involving internal organs diagnosed at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. In at least five of the cases, the species of the infecting parasite was Leishmania tropica (previously known as L. tropica minor), a parasite more commonly associated with cutaneous than with visceral leishmaniasis.