Literature review and a preliminary study on leishmaniasis to inform community awareness campaigns in Sri Lanka

Abstract

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Leishmaniasis in Sri Lanka: The need for effective targeting of island-specific issues through strategic implementation of global management plans for disease detection and control

“…31 Another major issue is the shortage of suitably trained technical personnel across a range of impacted disciplines including early detection of infection, health worker education, community awareness and disease notification. 56,57 Most importantly, in Sri Lanka, diagnosis of leishmaniasis relies heavily upon traditional light microscopic identification of amastigote stage parasitized phagocytes in Giemsa-stained tissue specimens from skin lesions for CL, or from bone marrow for VL. More sophisticated molecular or immunological techniques like PCR, ELISA and indirect fluorescent antibody tests are cost-limited to very few laboratories.…”