On the Clinical Manifestations and Parasites of Old World Leishmaniases and Leishmania Tropica Causing Visceral Leishmaniasis

Abstract

Leishmanial parasites were first discovered in the Old World by Cunningham (1885) and with this the first defined cases of leishmaniasis began to be described. By the turn of the century, two distinct leishmaniases were recognized: cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL)(Borovsky,1898, cited and translated by Hoare, 1938; Wright, 1903) and visceral leishmaniasis (VL) (Leishman, 1903; Donovan,1903). This was before the generic name Leishmania was ever applied to the parasites causing them (Ross,1903). Since the clinical manifestations of these two leishmaniases were so distinct, their parasites were named as separate species: L.tropica for those causing CL; L.donovani for those causing VL, despite their similar morphology. So distinct were these in the minds of practitioners that the two species names became synonymous with the two diseases. Even today they are often applied to uncharacterized organisms solely according to clinical condition and the organs in which the parasites are found.