Research the Literature on your Own

1. What is the mortality rate for Leishmania infections? What characteristics of the parasite could influence this?
2. What drugs are available to treat Leishmania infections? How good are they? Is it feasible to treat all infected people in the world?
3. There are many different clinical forms of Leishmaniasis that vary greatly in severity. Even though all the species belong to the same genus, the diseases that they cause are quite different. What are the differences between the many different species of Leishmania that governs the type of clinical disease that develops? How are they similar?
4. In what countries or regions is Leishmania transmission still endemic? How many people are currently infected with the disease? Has there been a decrease or increase in the number of people infected worldwide (lecture given in April 2007)? Why?
5. Why have some countries been more successful than others at controlling disease spread? What factors might have influenced this?
6. What more has been discovered about Leishmania in the past couple of years? What proteins are important for pathogenesis? Is there a known population of humans that is resistant to Leishmania infection? If so, why are they resistant to infection?