Status of Leishmaniasis in North India: A Review

More than 1,00,000 people are affected every year by Visceral Leishmaniasis (VL) in India. VL is a chronic and fatal disease caused by Leishmania donovani parasites, which are transmitted by infected female sand flies, Phlebotomus argentipes. VL is a serious public health concern and is endemic in Brazil, southern and central parts of Europe, eastern and central division of Bangladesh, southern region of Nepal, Sudan, north-eastern regions of India and south-east Asia. It is mostly endemic in countries that are least developed in the world. Ninety percent of total cases of the world are reported from India, Bangladesh and Sudan. Several districts of the state Bihar show the occurrence of VL which is 40-50% of the world cases and 90% of the cases in India. Conversely, information on epidemiology of kala-azar in India and other affected countries except few developed countries, remain scanty due to inadequate studies about the various risk factors associated with VL. The present review on the status of Leishmaniasis in North-India contributes to the study of the number of cases, deaths, prevalence, incidence caused by VL, spatial distribution, basic epidemiologic features, the vector biology, transmission of the parasite, hosts and some major risk factors viz. climatic, natural calamities, the physical and biotic, the socio-economic conditions, the environmental factors, vegetation, urbanization, domestic animals and the living standard.