Diagnosis and Treatment of Leishmania Infections

Patients admitted on this protocol will have, or be suspected of having, a Leishmania infection. The major objectives of the protocol are to diagnose and classify the Leishmania infection and to provide species-based therapy to study the natural history of the treated infection and further understand host and species characteristics that lead to resistant or relapsing disease. As part of the standard evaluation of these patients, biopsies to obtain parasite and host tissue will be obtained. The host response before and after therapy will be assessed to address broader questions related to diagnosis, disease pathogenesis, and response to therapy. Careful observations of the patients clinical and immunologic responses to therapy will be made, as well as long-term follow-up of these changes. It is anticipated that the patients will receive optimal clinical care for their infections and that the specimens collected from them will prove to be valuable reagents for the laboratory studies of the host responses unique to leishmanial infections.