ArticleNature communications2017
Skin parasite landscape determines host infectiousness in visceral leishmaniasis.
Article in Nature communications, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 45 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
45 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Phlebotomine sand flies (Diptera: Psychodidae) in Pakistan: a decadal synthesis of biogeographical distribution, ecological determinants, and vectorial implications (2015-2025).Die Naturwissenschaften · 2026Pooled it
- Sand fly synthetic sex-aggregation pheromone co-located with insecticide reduces the incidence of infection in the canine reservoir of visceral leishmaniasis: A stratified cluster randomised trial.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2019Trial
- Bi-directional highways and super-seeder tissues underpin parasite dissemination in experimental Leishmania donovani infection.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Article
- Leishmaniasis.Nature reviews. Disease primers · 2025Review
- Infectiousness of Leishmania major to Phlebotomus papatasi: differences between natural reservoir host Meriones shawi and laboratory model BALB/c mice.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2025Article
- Malnutrition exacerbates pathogenesis of Lutzomyia longipalpis sand fly-transmitted Leishmania donovani.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Review
- Clinical anemia predicts dermal parasitism and reservoir infectiousness during progressive visceral leishmaniosis.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2024Article
- Chronic High-Level Parasitemia in HIV-Infected Individuals With or Without Visceral Leishmaniasis in an Endemic Area in Northwest Ethiopia: Potential Superspreaders?Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America · 2024Article
- FVB/NJ strain as a mouse model for cutaneous leishmaniasis by Leishmania (L.) amazonensis.Memorias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz · 2024Article
- Clinical performance of a quantitative pan-genusPractical laboratory medicine · 2023Article
- Infectiousness of AsymptomaticPathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Article
- Assessing reservoir host status in leishmaniasis with special reference to the infectiousness of Leishmania (Viannia) braziliensis infections in wild rodents.Revista da Sociedade Brasileira de Medicina Tropical · 2023Review
- High levels of infectiousness of asymptomatic Leishmania (Viannia) braziliensis infections in wild rodents highlights their importance in the epidemiology of American Tegumentary Leishmaniasis in Brazil.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2023Article
- Livestock and rodents within an endemic focus of Visceral Leishmaniasis are not reservoir hosts for Leishmania donovani.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2022Article
- Oral and Intragastric: New Routes of Infection byPathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Visceral Leishmaniasis and the Skin: Dermal Parasite Transmission to Sand Flies.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
- Over-dispersed Trypanosoma cruzi parasite load in sylvatic and domestic mammals and humans from northeastern Argentina.Parasites & vectors · 2022Article
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Funding
Abstract
Increasing evidence suggests that the infectiousness of patients for the sand fly vector of visceral leishmaniasis is linked to parasites found in the skin. Using a murine model that supports extensive skin infection with Leishmania donovani, spatial analyses at macro-(quantitative PCR) and micro-(confocal microscopy) scales indicate that parasite distribution is markedly skewed. Mathematical models accounting for this heterogeneity demonstrate that while a patchy distribution reduces the expected number of sand flies acquiring parasites, it increases the infection load for sand flies feeding on a patch, increasing their potential for onward transmission. Models representing patchiness at both macro- and micro-scales provide the best fit with experimental sand fly feeding data, pointing to the importance of the skin parasite landscape as a predictor of host infectiousness. Our analysis highlights the skin as a critical site to consider when assessing treatment efficacy, transmission competence and the impact of visceral leishmaniasis elimination campaigns.Parasitemia has been considered the main determinant of visceral leishmaniasis transmission. By combining imaging, qPCR and experimental xenodiagnoses with mathematical models, Doehl et al. argue that the patchy landscape of parasites in the skin is necessary to explain infectiousness.
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