Citation

Cannella AP, Nguyen BM, Piggott CD, Lee RA, Vinetz JM, Mehta SR. Am. J. Trop. Med. Hyg. 2011; 84(6): 847-850.

Affiliation

Division of Infectious Diseases and Division of Dermatology, Department of Medicine, University of California-San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, Publisher American Society of Tropical Medicine)

DOI

10.4269/ajtmh.2011.10-0693

PMID

21633017

PMCID

PMC3110366

Abstract

Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is rarely seen in the United States, and the social and geographic context of the infection can be a key to its diagnosis and management. Four Somali and one Ethiopian, in U.S. Border Patrol custody, came to the United States by the same human trafficking route: Djibouti to Dubai to Moscow to Havana to Quito; and then by ground by Columbia/Panama to the United States-Mexico border where they were detained. Although traveling at different times, all five patients simultaneously presented to our institution with chronic ulcerative skin lesions at different sites and stages of evolution. Culture of biopsy specimens grew Leishmania panamensis. Soon thereafter, three individuals from East Africa traveling the identical route presented with L. panamensis CL to physicians in Tacoma, WA. We document here the association of a human trafficking route and new world CL. Clinicians and public health officials should be aware of this emerging infectious disease risk.

Language: en