Manabi Province Ecuador: Increase cases of Leishmaniasis (parasite infection)

Increases leishmaniasis in Manabi cantons

eldiario.ec reported

The health professional, who works at the local hospital, detailed that it is Leishmaniasis, disease caused by a parasite.
He added that in Paján five cases have been diagnosed so far this year; While in 2015 there were only two.
The affected patients, he said, are from sectors of rural Paján.
Also in the sector the Crucitas, of the parish Pedro Pablo Gómez de Jipijapa, has evidenced six cases, according to the lawyer.

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Specialists. Before this outbreak in the canton of Manabi, a group of nine medical specialists from Ecuador and Japan arrived in Paján last week to carry out research and vector control in these rural areas.
The Galenos, who are mostly teachers of the Catholic University of Guayaquil, have been conducting studies of this disease for several years.
This is the case of Yoshihisa Hashiguchi, a Japanese doctor who has been investigating this disease in the country for 35 years, along with the Guayaquilean Galen Eduardo Gómez, who is also the head of Vector Control of the Guayas Health District.
To this group are added the doctors Manabitas Lenin Vélez and Johnny Plaza.
Eduardo Gómez, the leader of this delegation, said that his research work began in 1981 and that now they arrived in Paján before the outbreak presented.
They began a field work to determine the sites where these cases originated, which are usually rural areas.
It was said that the transmitter insect, known as lutzomyia or white blanket, is produced where there are animals such as cusumbo, light parakeet, rabbits, guatusos, rats, among others.
These insects bite people by introducing a parasite known as leishmania, and those affected develop severe skin-type skin lesions that have to be cured with a long treatment based on antimony salts.
Lenin Vélez, a physician, said there are two types of leishmaniasis, visceral and cutaneous, the latter being found in Ecuador.
In El Carmen in 2015, 24 cases of Leishmaniasis were diagnosed, with some being imported and others autochthonous, according to Mauricio Aguilar, a micro-doctor from La Malaria.
According to the zonal coordination of Health, cases in Manabí have increased.
In total, in 2015, 63 cases were diagnosed in the province; In this year they go 76.
The largest canton with this disease is Portoviejo with 12 cases in 2015 and 16 cases so far this year. Read Article