Posted on Nov 1, 2023
A 'tropical disease' carried by sand flies is confirmed in a new country: the U.S.
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https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2023/11/01/ [login to see] /leishmaniasis-sand-flies-tropical-disease-endemic-north-america-united-states
Back in 2014, dermatologist Bridget McIlwee saw a 3-year-old patient in central Texas with unusual bumps on his ear.
"They looked a little bit like almost kind of a benign mole that you would see in a child, except that you wouldn't expect something like that to come up quickly and then multiply," she says.
McIlwee sent off a sample for laboratory testing, and the results came back pointing to a surprising culprit: The boy had tested positive for cutaneous leishmaniasis, a neglected tropical disease. The World Health Organization says between 600,000 and 1 million new infections happen worldwide every year, mostly in tropical regions of the Americas, the Mediterranean basin, the Middle East and Central Asia - not in Texas. These illnesses can be disfiguring, even if they are rarely fatal.
Back in 2014, dermatologist Bridget McIlwee saw a 3-year-old patient in central Texas with unusual bumps on his ear.
"They looked a little bit like almost kind of a benign mole that you would see in a child, except that you wouldn't expect something like that to come up quickly and then multiply," she says.
McIlwee sent off a sample for laboratory testing, and the results came back pointing to a surprising culprit: The boy had tested positive for cutaneous leishmaniasis, a neglected tropical disease. The World Health Organization says between 600,000 and 1 million new infections happen worldwide every year, mostly in tropical regions of the Americas, the Mediterranean basin, the Middle East and Central Asia - not in Texas. These illnesses can be disfiguring, even if they are rarely fatal.
A 'tropical disease' carried by sand flies is confirmed in a new country: the U.S.
Posted from npr.orgPosted in these groups: 
State of Texas
Medical
Health
Climate ChangeCenters for Disease Control and Prevention
State of Texas Medical Health Climate ChangeCenters for Disease Control and Prevention
Posted 7 mo ago
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."McIlwee sent off a sample for laboratory testing, and the results came back pointing to a surprising culprit: The boy had tested positive for cutaneous leishmaniasis, a neglected tropical disease. The World Health Organization says between 600,000 and 1 million new infections happen worldwide every year, mostly in tropical regions of the Americas, the Mediterranean basin, the Middle East and Central Asia — not in Texas. These illnesses can be disfiguring, even if they are rarely fatal.
"I was shocked, because in medical school, we're taught that this is a tropical disease, something that you see in immigrants, military returning from deployment, people who went on vacation to South America or Asia or Africa," McIlwee says.
But this boy hadn't traveled anywhere, meaning he must have picked up the cutaneous leishmaniasis parasite at home in the United States. That led McIlwee and her colleagues to investigate whether the parasite could be living and spreading in North America. They published their results in 2018, arguing that cutaneous leishmaniasis is, in fact, endemic to the United States."...
..."McIlwee sent off a sample for laboratory testing, and the results came back pointing to a surprising culprit: The boy had tested positive for cutaneous leishmaniasis, a neglected tropical disease. The World Health Organization says between 600,000 and 1 million new infections happen worldwide every year, mostly in tropical regions of the Americas, the Mediterranean basin, the Middle East and Central Asia — not in Texas. These illnesses can be disfiguring, even if they are rarely fatal.
"I was shocked, because in medical school, we're taught that this is a tropical disease, something that you see in immigrants, military returning from deployment, people who went on vacation to South America or Asia or Africa," McIlwee says.
But this boy hadn't traveled anywhere, meaning he must have picked up the cutaneous leishmaniasis parasite at home in the United States. That led McIlwee and her colleagues to investigate whether the parasite could be living and spreading in North America. They published their results in 2018, arguing that cutaneous leishmaniasis is, in fact, endemic to the United States."...
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