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Cutaneous Leishmaniasis in Travellers: a Focus on Epidemiology and Treatment in 2015

  • Tropical, Travel and Emerging Infections (L Chen, Section Editor)
  • Published:
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Abstract

Imported cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is a growing problem with increasing global travel to endemic areas. Returned travellers seeking care encounter significant barriers to treatment, including diagnostic delays and difficult access to anti-leishmanial drugs. Treatment recommendations in non-endemic settings are a moving target, reflecting recent developments in Leishmania diagnostics and therapeutics. Accumulating experience with molecular-based species identification has enabled species-directed therapy. Clinicians are reevaluating more toxic traditional regimens in light of newly approved therapeutic agents and emerging data on local cutaneous treatments. Referral centers are implementing treatment decision algorithms designed to maximize efficacy while minimizing adverse events. Although management strategies continue to evolve, treatment of CL in non-endemic settings remains controversial. Persistent reliance on expert opinion reflects lack of research focused on travellers and limited randomized controlled trial evidence. We herein review the current epidemiology of cutaneous leishmaniasis in travellers and species-specific evidence for available therapies.

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Conflict of Interest

Andrea Boggild and Adrienne Showler have no disclosures relevant to this work.

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This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by the author.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Adrienne J. Showler & Andrea K. Boggild

  2. Tropical Disease Unit, Division of Infectious Diseases, UHN-Toronto General Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Andrea K. Boggild

  3. Public Health Ontario Laboratories, Public Health Ontario, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Andrea K. Boggild

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  1. Adrienne J. Showler
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  2. Andrea K. Boggild
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Correspondence to Andrea K. Boggild.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Tropical, Travel and Emerging Infections

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Showler, A.J., Boggild, A.K. Cutaneous Leishmaniasis in Travellers: a Focus on Epidemiology and Treatment in 2015. Curr Infect Dis Rep 17, 37 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11908-015-0489-2

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