Epidemiological surveillance of leishmaniasis in the European Union: operational and research challenges

摘要

Even though many physicians and public health experts still consider leishmaniasis a tropical disease, two entities associated with several Phlebotomus spe- cies are endemic in southern Europe: (i) zoonotic VL and CL caused by L. infantum throughout the region, having dogs as reservoir host; and (ii) anthroponotic CL caused by L. tropica, which occurs sporadically in Greece. More recently, a third parasite species (L. donovani, assumed to be anthroponotic) has been recorded in Cyprus, where it causes both VL and CL [3].