Leishmaniasis

[lsyorke, RN]

Just an FYI....I work in wound care and we have had our first case of this. Watch your patients history for travel to the middle east and south america....and wounds that are getting progressively worse. This patient came to us misdiagnosed as scabies. NO WAY this was scabies, so google we did and found the real cause.

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dpd/parasi...leishmania.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leishmaniasis

As the military is coming home, this may become a diagnosis that we may see more often.

[Prettyladie]

oh my goodness. ive never heard of this. so i did the wikipedia site you had. and it showed a picture. that wound is huge. does it continue to keep eating away. this is N O T scabies like you said..how is the patient.

[lsyorke, RN]

The patient is doing fine...referred to ID for treatment. He told us it started with what appeared to be bite marks, so the initial diagnosis of scabies would have been logical....but then it progressed from there, until he came to us. From what I've read it will progress until treated..which is a complicated process.

His wounds looked exactly like the pictures on Wiki.

Interesting that this story hit the news this week:

http://www.rte.ie/arts/2009/0326/fogleb.html

[bebop1]

I was just writing to tell ya all...I am a military wife. My husband has been "in the sandbox" as they say. He is very aware of this, and he knew how to pronounce this...I had no clue! he said ya...we all just about get this and get bit by the sand flies. so this is an everyday occurance for our young men and women in the service! there is also a horrible "flesh eating" something or another that many of the service people are coming back with, and there is really no antibiotic that touches it and it just needs to be cut out...does anyone know what this is? I want to say it starts with "A"......I know that is not a help....

But the conditions our military service people are subjected to are horrible!!! and they do it day to day anywho.....

[lsyorke, RN]

Amphotericin appears to be the drug of choice for treatment. Every case has to be reported to the CDC, and treatment plans come from them. There used to be two topical treatments, but in most cases resistance is the problem with them.