The diagnostics and treatment of tropical diseasesStitt, E. R. (Edward Rhodes)
Science
The diagnostics and treatment of tropical diseases
Stitt, E. R. (Edward Rhodes)
Tropical medicine
Just as with oriental sore one or more pruriginous papular lesions
appear on the uncovered parts of the body. In a few days it
develops a pustular summit. This undergoes ulceration and after
several months or even after the primary lesions have healed
nodules may make their appearance in nose and mouth.
These ulcerate and form fungoid granulations. Even the larynx may
be involved. The nasal septum and other cartilaginous portions
of the nose are often destroyed and the overlying tissues
become swollen and often eroded by ulceration, so that the
patients present the appearance of similar cases where syphilis,
tuberculosis or leprosy may be the cause.
A point of distinction between syphilitic and leishmaniasis lesions
of the nasal mucosa is that the latter do not involve the bony
structures.
Rabello noted that a positive Wassermann may be present in
cutaneous leishmaniasis which is in agreement with Sutherland’s
findings of 27% positives in cases of kala-azar.
The patients suffer from fever, joint pains, bronchitis and general
symptoms. After a long period of ten to twenty years, during which
they often die of some intercurrent affection, there may be a
terminal cachexia.
[Illustration: FIG. 57.—A case of _Leishmaniasis_ from Brazil
showing lesions in the mouth. (After Carini; from Mense.)]
=Diagnosis.=—The diagnosis in either oriental sore or in
American leishmaniasis can only be made surely by the finding of
_Leishmania_, either by scrapings from the edges of the ulcer or by
culturing in N. N. N. medium the blood from the immediate site of the
sore. Cultures were once obtained from the blood of a finger where
the sore was located on the arm of the same side but usually the
parasites are absent from the peripheral circulation. Gland puncture
in American leishmaniasis may give positive findings of parasites.
=Prophylaxis and Treatment.=—Knowing that the application of
material from a sore to a scarified surface will bring about
infection, it would seem advisable to cover any abrasions or open
wounds with flexible collodion or other protectives so as to prevent
flies, which may have fed on oriental sores, from having access to
the wound.
It has been recommended to paint the spot of insect bites with
tincture of iodine.
Atoxyl and salvarsan have been tried in oriental sore and American
leishmaniasis without any particularly striking curative results.
Attempts have been made to excise the early lesions but unless one
goes well beyond the infected area, severe recurrences may result.
Bier’s passive congestion method has been tried without success.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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