Leishmaniosis as a professional tropical disease

Summary

The author presents case studies of skin leishmaniosis from her own practice in the Centre of Travel Medicine which deals with workers going abroad. The workers who stayed in tropical and subtropical regions for more months and were bited with mosquitos developed the disease. Three workers, two enginneers and one pipe-line worker got ill during the construction of a refinery in Iraq. Symptoms of the disease occurred on the wrist, forearm and knee. One electrical engineer worked on the construction of the road in Libya, the symptoms of the disease occurred on the wrist and crus. Another electrical engineer got ill with the skin form on face during the construction of a brewery in Etiopia. The service technician of dieselaggregates got ill during the 3.5 month stay in Sudan, symptoms occurred on the neck, forearm and wrist. There were skin forms in all cases of the disease. There were some hesitations in previous cases during the initial diagnosis made abroad, patients were treated for pyoderma without succes, some cases were treated surgically by removing the locus. Recently, the disease was treated by antimycotic preparations (Nizoral, Sporanox) in our department in the Faculty Hospital. The treatment is always a longterm procedure. All cases were reported and compensated as occupational diseases. The diseases treated abroad were reported according to imported health documentation with the confirmation of the disease.

Key words:
protozoal disease, professional skin leishmaniosis, mosquitos of genus Phlebotomus and Lutzomya, anthropozoonosis