Article

A cluster of cutaneous leishmaniasis associated with human smuggling.

Division of Infectious Diseases and Division of Dermatology, Department of Medicine, University of California-San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.
The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene (impact factor: 2.59). 06/2011; 84(6):847-50. DOI:10.4269/ajtmh.2011.10-0693 pp.847-50
Source: PubMed

ABSTRACT Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is rarely seen in the United States, and the social and geographic context of the infection can be a key to its diagnosis and management. Four Somali and one Ethiopian, in U.S. Border Patrol custody, came to the United States by the same human trafficking route: Djibouti to Dubai to Moscow to Havana to Quito; and then by ground by Columbia/Panama to the United States-Mexico border where they were detained. Although traveling at different times, all five patients simultaneously presented to our institution with chronic ulcerative skin lesions at different sites and stages of evolution. Culture of biopsy specimens grew Leishmania panamensis. Soon thereafter, three individuals from East Africa traveling the identical route presented with L. panamensis CL to physicians in Tacoma, WA. We document here the association of a human trafficking route and new world CL. Clinicians and public health officials should be aware of this emerging infectious disease risk.

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Keywords

biopsy specimens
 
chronic ulcerative skin lesions
 
Columbia/Panama
 
Cutaneous leishmaniasis
 
different sites
 
different times
 
Dubai
 
East Africa traveling
 
emerging infectious disease risk
 
five patients
 
geographic context
 
identical route
 
new world CL
 
public health officials
 
Quito
 
Somali
 
United States
 
United States-Mexico border
 
WA