A NEW vaccine against the parasitic disease leishmaniasis not only prevents the disease in dogs, it can cure them too.
The experimental vaccine was developed by researchers at the French Institute for Research and Development in Montpelier, who report their results in Veterinary Immunology and Immunopathology, vol 106, p 247). They are now planning safety trials of the vaccine in people.
Visceral leishmaniasis, which kills 200,000 people a year, is carried mainly by dogs, and spreads to people via sandflies. The drugs used to treat people with the disease are toxic, and the parasites are becoming resistant. Tackling the disease using drugs only increases resistance.
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