Epidemiology and Control of Leishmaniasis in Central Eurasia ; A new epidemic in association with irrigation of deserts

欧亚大陆中部的大片地区已被沙漠广泛占据。生活在这片贫瘠土地上的人类一直在与自然力量作斗争，以获得水。灌溉可以给居民带来财富，促进社会经济发展。然而，它也极大地改变了灌溉地的生态系统，如人、动物、昆虫和病原微生物的生态变化，导致包括利什曼病在内的疾病出现了新的不利和意想不到的地方。今天，利什曼病在这些地区流行。因此，利什曼病可能是一种人为疾病。​利什曼病在欧亚大陆中部广泛存在，那里存在利什曼原虫种类、媒介白蛉和宿主动物的不同组合。人类被认为是主要的偶然宿主，尽管在一些地方，如印度，这种疾病是由人类传染的。因此，利什曼病的流行特征因地区而异，因此应采取不同的控制措施。应事先进行仔细和详细的流行病学调查，以确定针对该病的有效控制措施。

A vast area of the Central Eurasia has widely been occupied with deserts. Humans living in this sterile land have continuously struggled against natural forces to obtain water. Irrigation might bring wealth to residents and facilitate to socioeconomical development. However it also tremendously changes ecosystem in the irrigated land, suchi as changes in ecology of humans, animals, insects, and pathogenic microorganisms, resulting in new unfavorable and unexpected endemy of the diseases including leishmaniasis. Today over the areas leishmaniasis is endemic. Leishmaniasis, thus, might be one of the man-made diseases. Since 1994 we have performed epdemiological researches on leishmaniasis in some areas along the Silk Road that crosses over the Central Eurasia including Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China, the Central Asian countries, and Turkey. Leishmaniasis is widespread over the Central Eurasia, where different combination of Leishmania species, vector sandflies, and reservoir animals exists. Humans are considered to be mostly accidental hosts, although in some places, e.g.India, the disease is anthroponotic. Hence epidemic features of leishmaniasis varied among areas and therefore control measures should be different. Careful and detail epidemiological investigatrions should be needed in advance to establish effective control measures against this disease.