photo.jpg

# Features of Leishmanial parasites: Leishmania species are unicellular eukaryotes having a well-defined nucleus and other cell organelles including kinetoplasts and flagella. Depending on the stage of their life cycle, they exist in two structural variants, as: The amastigote form is found in the...

# Features of Leishmanial parasites: Leishmania species are unicellular eukaryotes having a well-defined nucleus and other cell organelles including kinetoplasts and flagella. Depending on the stage of their life cycle, they exist in two structural variants, as: The amastigote form is found in the mononuclear phagocytes and circulatory systems of humans. The promastigote form is found in the alimentary tract of sandflies. It is an extracellular and motile form. # History Kala-azar first came to the attention of Western doctors in 1824 in Jessore, India (now Bangladesh), where it was initially thought to be a form of malaria. Assam gave kala-azar one of its common names, Assam fever. Another common name, kala-azar (Hindustani) (kala āzār), is derived from kala which means black in Sanskrit, as well as in the languages descended from it, including Assamese, Hindi and Urduthe word azar means Fever in Persian and Hindustani It remains unclear who first discovered the organism. David Douglas Cunningham, Surgeon Major of the British Indian army, may have seen it in 1885 without being able to relate it to the disease. Peter Borovsky, a Russian military surgeon working in Tashkent, conducted research into the etiology of "oriental sore", locally known as sart sore, and in 1898 published the first accurate description of the causative agent.