Leishmaniasis, a skin disease transmitted by sandflies is spreading in Syria, where health infrastructure is destroyed.
It takes on different nicknames, each less cheerful than the other – “Aleppo devil”, “Aleppo ulcer” or “Aleppo boil”. Cutaneous leishmaniasis, a parasitic disease transmitted by sandflies, small mosquitoes that thrive in war zones, is proliferating in Syria, taking advantage of the absence of health structures and the lack of care in the country.
Potentially fatal
The attacks are serious. This disease, which attacks the flesh, causes skin damage, respiratory problems and nosebleeds. It can irreparably disfigure patients and, if left untreated, can be fatal.
23,000 cases in Aleppo in 2013
The pathology has been present for centuries in the area, but it remained limited to a few cases before the start of the conflict, in 2011. According to medical sources cited by the newspaper Qantara, in 2013, 23,000 cases were counted in the city of Aleppo alone.
Given the current state of health infrastructure, the census remains difficult to implement and the data are therefore inaccurate. However, the number of cases is estimated to be three to four times higher than normal.
In 2012, the review Plos One Neglected Tropical Diseases devoted a study in which she referred to this worrying increase in prevalence, which particularly affects children.
More recently, the US CDCs (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) alerted the international community to the risks of the disease spreading to neighboring countries. The disease is not transmissible between humans; only the parasite can infect humans. However, the great precariousness of the camps where the refugees live constitute privileged areas for the proliferation of sandflies. Thus, Lebanon, which had six cases between 2001 and 2013, counted 1,033 in 2013 alone.
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