Cutaneous leishmaniasis, a case reportCutaneous leishmaniasis, a case report

Abstract

Leishmaniasis is a chronic disease caused by a flagellated protozoan belonging to the genus Leishmania. It has a worldwide distribution, although most cases are grouped in South America, the Mediterranean basin and some areas of Asia and Africa. There are three fundamental forms of disease, cutaneous, mucocutaneous and visceral. This paper describes a patient who comes to the clinic with lesions in the right pinna, accompanied by pruritus of two months of evolution. In the epidemiological survey, it was found as a precedent to have suffered an insect bite followed by redness of the earlobe and itching during a prolonged stay in a jungle area in Panama. When she did not respond to antibiotic treatment, she was referred to the Pedro Kourí Institute of Tropical Medicine, where the diagnosis of cutaneous leishmaniasis was confirmed by PCR and biopsy. The case is presented due to the rarity of this diagnosis in our setting.