Troops being treated for leishmaniasis (caused by sand flea bites)

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=21116

About 500 soldiers who have served in Iraq have been diagnosed with a skin disease caused by sand flies in the largest outbreak of leishmaniasis faced by the U.S. military since World War II, according to Defense Department doctors.

The disease is caused by parasites transmitted via sand fly saliva, and comes in three forms: cutaneous, affecting the skin; mucosal, affecting the mouth, nose and throat; and visceral, affecting internal organs, which can be fatal if untreated.

All but two of the cases diagnosed so far have been the cutaneous form and all but three of those were contracted in Iraq, according to Dr. Alan Magill, a specialist in infectious diseases at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Maryland.

The remaining three cases of cutaneous “leish” were contracted by U.S. servicemembers deployed to Afghanistan, Magill said in a Thursday interview, as were the two cases of visceral leishmaniasis.

[Columbia]

1. Yeah, I knew a couple guys who got that

You have to use the insect repellant out there and stay covered. Those bugs are truly ruthless.

The flies are more prevalent than the sand fleas though. You could kill those things by the thousands and they'd still keep coming.

[PaDUer]

2. Two of our local newsmen are in Iraq....

and send daily reports via satellite to the paper to be printed daily..In one of the reports, they talked about these bugs..

* Times-Tribune reporter Chris Kelly and photographer Michael Mullen are in Iraq for a month with National Guard troops from the Scranton-based 2nd Battalion, 103rd Armor Regiment. You can E-mail them at [e-mail] or [e-mail]

The reporters send daily reports along with pix as you can see from this url--
http://www.scrantontimes.com/site/news.asp?brd=2185

[scottxyz]

3. I think this is similar to the "bicho do pé" ("foot bug") in Brazil

http://icb.usp.br/~marcelcp/Tungapenetrans.htm

[jeanmarc]

5. 'Chiggers?' Oh lord!

I had those as a kid! They secrete an digestive goo into your skin to break it down to feed on. The goo is extremely irritating. I scratched and scratched and couldn't go to sleep when I got these horrible things. Thanks to not being able to go to sleep, the pure frustration had me crying myself to sleep. The ironic part is we actually saw them ( this is when I was in the cub scouts in Oklahoma), but didn't know what they were. Small little tiny red mites that seemed to nest in webs a bit like spiders, but very small. The treatment nearly made me pass out. Some sulphurous compound you rub on your skin. This isn't like some mosquito bites, nor is it like poison ivy. There is no stopping the itch until you get rid of these horrible things.

I can't imagine the sleep is too good there anyway, but if you get these pests, you will be guaranteed not to sleep.

[DulceDecorum]

10. Hey don't knock jiggers

The Catholic church went into Africa where the people had never seen these things and when the locals got them, the priests and nuns would only treat those people who agreed to join the church.

If you wonder why those churches were so full, it is simply because
Jesus Saves.

[kutastha]

4. A link

To what Leishmaniasis can do

http://www.mpibpc.gwdg.de/abteilungen/145/pressrelease/bild3.html

absolutely awful.

[jeanmarc]

6. Okay, not chiggers, but like them

These things will cause you to go almost insane without some good compounds. You will itch, and itch and not be able to sleep. And this picture indicates these particular ones are even more of an irritant. I would not wish this on anyone.

[kskiska]

7. Just wait till summer

only another month or so away. Last year they had no water.

[NYC]

8. Baghdad Boil.

When I read about this months ago, they were calling it Baghdad boil.

[jamesinca]

9. It is in a group of bugs known as Hemoflagellates

There are two genera: Trypanosoma and Leishmania. Trypanosoma is most noted for being spread by the tsetse fly and causes sleeping sickness. The treatment for Leishmania is cleaning and scraping of the lesion and up to 2 months of antibiotics. If it is more than a single lesion, or the lesion is non responsive, than hot water (39-42 c)for 20-30 min/day for up to a month. Also ultraviolet and infared radiation can be used on non-rsponsive types of the parasite. They effect the spleen, liver, bone marrow and reticuloendothelial cells. Patients have progressive emaciation and growing weakness. There is irregular fever, sometimes hectic. Untreated visceral (kala-azar) is fatal. Once treated there is lifetime immunity to the cutaneous form, also called Baghdad boil.
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I got this information from the 21st edition of Jawetz, Melnick, & Adelberg's Medical Microbiology.

[PaDUer]

11. NOT good!!

Thousands in Pakistan Fall Prey to Incurable Skin Infection

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=655&ncid=655&e=10&u=/oneworld/20040317/wl_oneworld/4591817531079514972

[Barkley]

12. They finally found biological weapons in Iraq!