Burden of disease

Magnitude of the problem

Leishmaniasis is a poverty-related disease. It affects the poorest of the poor and is associated with malnutrition, displacement, poor housing, illiteracy, gender discrimination, weakness of the immune system and lack of resources. Leishmaniasis is also linked to environmental changes,* such as deforestation, building of dams, new irrigation schemes and urbanization, and the accompanying migration of non-immune people to endemic areas.

Epidemics of leishmaniasis have significantly delayed the implementation of numerous development programmes,** particularly in the Amazon basin, the tropical regions of the Andean countries, Morocco and Saudi Arabia. The disease has thus become a serious impediment to socioeconomic development.
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• 90% of all visceral leishmaniasis cases occur in Bangladesh, Brazil, India, Nepal and Sudan;
• 90% of mucocutaneous leishmaniasis occurs in Bolivia, Brazil and Peru;
• 90% of cutaneous leishmaniasis cases occur in Afghanistan, Brazil, Iran, Peru, Saudi Arabia and Syria.

• Maps on geographical distribution of leishmaniasis

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*The increase in risk factors for leishmaniasis worldwide
Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene

**Urbanization: an increasing risk factor for leishmaniasis
Weekly Epidemiological Record, N° 77, 44, 1 November 2002