Most of the leishmaniasis affected countries are in the tropics and subtropics except Australia or Oceania.
As Sand flies of genus Phlebotomus and Lutzomyia are the vectors for all types of leishmaniases, presence of these two genera of sand fly is directly proportional to the occurrence of leishmaniasis.
In countries like Australia, Russia etc. the climatic conditions for the survival of sand flies may be unfavorable.
No sand fly = no Leishmania / leishmaniasis
I think this may be the reason. But I am not 100% sure !
dear Dr ,I think the cause related to climate which is unfavourable for Phlebotomus.
Leishmaniasis is not found in Australia or Oceania (that is, islands in the Pacific, including Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia). Most of the affected countries are in the tropics and subtropics.
please see the attached doc.
Actually, there is a species of Leishmania in Australia. Human transmission has not been reported, the parasite is cutaneous and causes lesions in kangaroos and other large marsupials in the Northern Territory. It was discovered in 2003 and is most likely transmitted by day-biting midges: (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0020751911000105)
Sandflies are prevalent in Australia, but rarely bite humans.
So your question needs to be reworded to why do human infections with Leishmania not occur in Australia. To which the answer would be that it is most likely linked to the feeding pattern of the vector.
I'm agree with the last answer. It would be important to know the vector associated to kangaroos infection.
As written above Leishmania infection has been found in kangaroos in Australia and day-biting midges have been incriminated in the transmission of the parasite. So, the original question is already answered. As for the question raised by Simona John von Freyend I find it pertinent and the explanation offered makes sense: biting habits of midges. However, it is also possible that this Leishmania is simply not infective for humans and is restricted to red kangaroos and related species. Moreover, density of human population is low in large areas of Australia (interior) where some of the kangaroos species are more common.
Even though sandflis are present in Australia, human cases are absent, to spread the disease, vector is only a transmitter, it needs parasite from the infected person. Moreover, the sandflies requires cattle set like set up to easily reach human that is not possible in Australia.
Australia has the vectors and the hosts, but not the pathogen. The reason that leishmaniasis is not present is that the transmission cycle has not been able to become established. The excellent health system is the primary reason that the pathogen has been controlled.
Encontré este trabajo:
Identification of Clinical Infections of Leishmania Imported into Australia: Revising Speciation with Polymerase Chain Reaction-RFLP of the Kinetoplast Maxicircle.
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