The American leishmaniases: some observations on their ecology and epidemiology

As the first species of Leishmania encountered were the agents of human visceral and cutaneous leishmaniasis, it is understandable that studies on these parasites for a long time concentrated on those organisms commonly causing disease in man. Epidemiological studies over the past 20 years or so, however, have led to the inescapable conclusion that the genus Leishmania is comprised of numerous species of well adapted parasites, in a wide range of mammals, throughout most of those tropical and subtropical regions of the world where phlebotomine sandflies exist (Diptera: Psychodidae). Many of the leishmanias probably never gain entrance into man: due either to an incapacity to survive in his tissues, or (more likely) because the natural sandfly vectors do not feed on him. The leishmanias that do infect man are, nevertheless, among the greatest protozoological scourges of mankind, and a better understanding of their life-cycles may well help in future prevention or control of the diseases they cause. With few exceptions the leishmaniases are zoonoses, with a major source of infection in wild or domestic animals. In the Americas, the disease is essentially a rural one, and most commonly acquired by those penetrating forested or wooded regions. The following paper deals with the better known human leishmaniases of the New World, and some new ones, and discusses the major historical events in the laborious task of elucidating their ecology and epidemiology.