Monday, March 26, 2012
Dear Editor,
My wife recently contacted Leishmaniasis here in Belize. I also had a friend who contacted it several years ago and he was successfully treated back in the States. To our surprise it appears to be a condition that the head medical officials in Belize refuse to recognize.
What ethical or moral justification could anyone have for not recognizing, treating and reporting cases of Leishmaniasis to the appropriate health organizations? The World Health Organization widely recognizes the condition exists from the Yucatan to Brazil.
The only possible explanation is the potential negative impact on tourism? This is really unfortunate because depending on which variety the victim contracts, he or she can be left with disfigured body parts, organ failure and even death.
The variety you have and hence the proper medical treatment is determined by a simple biopsy of the infected area.
However, this test is NOT available in Belizean hospitals or medical clinics countrywide. If the test(s) were available in Belize, then heaven forbid someone would have to acknowledge the existence here in Belize.
We are in the tourism business and, as savvy as guests are these days, it’s kind of hard to deny Leishmaniasis exists in Belizie when they are sitting across from my wife at the dinner table. I can’t very well tell them “you really don’t see anything because it doesn’t exist”.
We tell them the symptoms and the need to seek quick medical confirmation and treatment. It’s no different from telling them the other potential afflictions from malaria, beef worm, or even dengue fever.
Our doctor at Belize Medical Associates did just that. My wife took his advice and went to Melchor, Guatemala, to seek treatment. Ironically, she is being treated by the same doctor the Belize Defense Force sends their troops to. Yes, those same troops that are protecting us from an unlikely Guatemalan insurgency.
The people who suffer from this irresponsible practice are Belizeans. That is the politics of medicine in Belize!
W. Reynolds
Unitedville, Cayo
(Ed. NOTE: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia – Leishmaniasis is a disease caused by protozoan parasites that belong to the genus Leishmania and is transmitted by the bite of certain species of sand fly (subfamily Phlebotominae). Although the majority of the literature mentions only one genus transmitting Leishmania to humans (Lutzomyia) in the Americas, a 2003 study by Galati suggested a new classification for the New World sand flies, elevating several subgenera to the genus level. Elsewhere in the world, the genus Phlebotomus is considered the vector of leishmaniasis.[1]
Most forms of the disease are transmissible only from animals (zoonosis), but some can be spread between humans. Human infection is caused by about 21 of 30 species that infect mammals.)