Chenhab Valley - A New Focus Of Cutaneous Leishmaniasis In Jammu And Kashmir, India.

The present study highlights clinical features and epidemiology of cutaneous leishmaniasis from a new focus of the disease in Jammu and Kashmir, previously a non-endemic area. It was a hospital based study in which 82 new cases of cutaneous leishmaniasis detected between June 2015 and July 2016 were evaluated for clinical aspects, epidemiology, geographical origin and treatment. The clinical diagnosis of cutaneous leishmaniasis was made by using criteria proposed by Bari and Rahman and was confirmed by the demonstration of leishmania Donovan bodies in the slit skin smear, histopathology and satisfactory response to intralesional sodium stibogluconate. 82 new cases of cutaneous leishmaniasis acquired indigenously were studied. There were 54(65. %) males and 28(34.15%) females with an age range of 2 to 65 years. All the patients belonged to a particular region comprising of three districts surrounding river Chenab. Face involvement was seen in majority of patients and a nodulo-ulerative plaque was the most common lesion. Farmers (25.2%), laborers (24.2%) and students (22.4%) were the highest represented groups among occupation. Skin smear and biopsy were positive for LD bodies in 49(59.75%) and 29(35.3%) cases respectively. Cutaneous Leishmaniasis is a disease of tropical and semi-tropical areas of the world. In India the disease is mainly confined to northwestern region. There has been a recent rise in the number of cases of cutaneous leishmaniasis in Jammu and Kashmir where the disease was not known to occur earlier. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]