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U.S. troops hit with parasitic infection

Infection Control Monitor, May 11, 2007

Deployments by U.S. troops to remote combat zones in Iraq and Afghanistan have been responsible for the spread of a parasitic disease rarely seen in the United States but common in the Middle East, reported The Boston Globe. Military officials said leishmaniasis has infected an estimated 2,500 U.S. troops in the last four years.

The spread of leishmaniasis is part of a trend of emerging infectious disease in the United States in recent years not only as a result of military deployments, but also from adventure travel and business opportunities in the developing world, according to health officials. The U.S. has also seen an increase in malaria, dengue fever, and chikungunya fever-all transmitted by mosquitoes.

Leishmaniasis is transmitted through the bite of a tiny sand fly and usually results in reddish skin ulcers on the face, hands, arms, or legs, the newspaper reported. A more virulent form of the disease also attacks organs and can be fatal it left untreated.

In some U.S. hospitals in Iraq, the disease has become so commonplace that troops call it the "Baghdad boil." But the disease has baffled some U.S. doctors who have struggled to figure out the cause of the infection when it has appeared in civilian contractors who were in Iraq or tourists infected in other parts of the world.

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