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PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases Issue Image | Vol. 4(10) October 2010

Houses in a Visceral Leishmaniasis (kala azar) endemic village in Bihar state (India).

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL), also know as kala azar, is one of the major public health concerns in Bihar state (India). In the Indian subcontinent, VL is caused by Leishmania donovani which is transmitted by peri-domestic Phlebotomus argentipes sand flies. To date, Indoor Residual Spraying (IRS) of households in endemic regions has been unable to control the disease. Vector resistance to the insecticides (i.e. DDT) may be one of the possible reasons explaining this failure (see Dinesh et al., 10.1371/journal.pntd.0000859).

Image Credit: Marc Coosemans, Institute of Tropical Medicine of Antwerp

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Houses in a Visceral Leishmaniasis (kala azar) endemic village in Bihar state (India).

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL), also know as kala azar, is one of the major public health concerns in Bihar state (India). In the Indian subcontinent, VL is caused by Leishmania donovani which is transmitted by peri-domestic Phlebotomus argentipes sand flies. To date, Indoor Residual Spraying (IRS) of households in endemic regions has been unable to control the disease. Vector resistance to the insecticides (i.e. DDT) may be one of the possible reasons explaining this failure (see Dinesh et al., 10.1371/journal.pntd.0000859).

Image Credit: Marc Coosemans, Institute of Tropical Medicine of Antwerp

https://doi.org/10.1371/image.pntd.v04.i10.g001