Black sickness

Black sickness --> visceral leishmaniasis

a chronic disease, occurring in india, Assam, china, the area formerly known as the Mediterranean littoral areas, the middle east, india, Pakistan, china, south and Central America, asia, Africa caused by leishmania donovani and transmitted by the bite of an appropriate species of sandfly of the genus phlebotomus or Lutzomyia; the organisms grow and multiply in macrophages, eventually causing them to burst and liberate amastigote parasites which then invade other macrophages; proliferation of macrophages in the bone marrow causes crowding out of erythroid and myeloid elements, resulting in leukopenia, and anaemia, splenomegaly, and hepatomegaly which are characteristic, along with enlargement of lymph nodes; fever, fatigue, malaise, and secondary infections also occur; different strains of leishmaniasis donovani occur; leishmaniasis infantum in Eurasia, leishmaniasis chagasi in latin america.

Synonym: assam fever, black sickness, burdwan fever, cachectic fever, dumdum fever, kala azar, tropical splenomegaly.

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