How to Diagnose Leishmaniasis

Leishmaniasis is an infection of any protozoa of the Leishmania genus. It is common throughout much of the world and transmitted to humans through the bite of a sandfly from the Lutzomyia genus on the American continent and the Phlebotomus elsewhere except for Australia, Antarctica and the Pacific Islands. Humans are usually incidental hosts with other mammals serving as natural reservoirs. The following steps will show how to diagnose leishmaniasis.

Instructions

• 1

  Identify cutaneous leishmaniasis by a skin lesion that begins as a firm, red papule several centimeters in diameter at a sandfly bite. The lesion will widen and frequently develop a raised red rim.

• 2

  Expect lesions from mucocutaneous leishmaniasis to be large with a prolonged healing period. The patient may experience nasal congestion, nosebleeds or a runny nose months or even years after the initial infection. The initial infection site may have a healed scar by the time the patient seeks treatment.

• 3

  Diagnose visceral leishmaniasis clinically in many cases for areas where it is endemic. The most common symptoms include anorexia, diarrhea, fatigue and high fevers. The patient will be thin with a distended abdomen due to a massively swollen liver and spleen.

• 4

  Confirm the diagnosis by the traditional method of identifying Leishmania from infected tissue. The method for obtaining tissue varies according to the specific type of infection. Some samples should be stained with hematoxylin and eosin and others with Giemsa. The amastigotes can be identified microscopically by their red rodlike kinetoplasts.

• 5

  Perform a polymerase chain reaction for leishmaniasis if available. This is a fast and highly sensitive test that is becoming more available.