Leishmaniasis history and symptoms

Signs and symptoms
Human leishmanial infections can result in 2 main forms of disease, cutaneous leishmaniasis and visceral leishmaniasis (kala-azar). The factors determining the form of disease include leishmanial species, geographic location, and immune response of the host.

Cutaneous leishmaniasis
Cutaneous leishmaniasis is characterized by one or more cutaneous lesions on areas where sandflies have fed. Persons who have cutaneous leishmaniasis have one or more sores on their skin. The sores can change in size and appearance over time. They often end up looking somewhat like a volcano, with a raised edge and central crater. A scab covers some sores. The sores can be painless or painful. Some people have swollen glands near the sores (for example, in the armpit if the sores are on the arm or hand).

Visceral leishmaniasis
Persons who have visceral leishmaniasis usually have fever, weight loss, and an enlarged spleen and liver (usually the spleen is bigger than the liver). Some patients have swollen glands. Certain blood tests are abnormal. For example, patients usually have low blood counts, including a low red blood cell count (anemia), low white blood cell count, and low platelet count. Some patients develop post kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis. Visceral leishmaniasis is becoming an important opportunistic infection in areas where it coexists with HIV.

If I were bitten by an infected sand fly, how quickly would I become sick?
People with cutaneous leishmaniasis usually develop skin sores within a few weeks (sometimes as long as months) of when they were bitten.

People with visceral leishmaniasis usually become sick within several months (rarely as long as years) of when they were bitten. The symptoms of leishmaniasis are skin sores which erupt weeks to months after the person affected is bitten by sand flies. Other consequences, which can become manifest anywhere from a few months to years after infection, include fever, damage to the spleen and liver, and anaemia.