Comentario epidemiológico sobre el primer caso colombiano de leishmaniasis visceral

Abstract

The first case of visceral leishmaniasis demonstrated in Colombia was that of a 3 year-old girl, who died in 1943 and whose liver, in postmortem viscerotomy study, revealed the disease. The patient lived in the rural area of Chaparral in San Vicente de Chucurí, located in the Santander department. Since then, the case was considered as being autochthonous form Chucurí. Epidemiological observations made since 1972, 29 years after the diagnosis was made, related to the vector's ecology, the girl's place of birth and origin, led to the conclusion that the disease was acquired in the rural area of San Nicolás in Lebrija, Santander department, which is a suitable habitat for the development of Lu. longipalpis, the vector of the disease.