The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is warning that some sandflies native to the southern U.S. are spreading the Leishmania mexicana parasite, a parasite that can lead to people suffering dangerous skin sores and longer-term damage to their bodies.
The parasite, which was once thought to be a problem that travelers returning from warmer climes had to deal with, is now thought to be spreading in the South.
While skin sores and irritation caused by Leishmania mexicana typically erupt weeks to months after people are bitten by an infected fly, the parasite can continue to cause damage in the body for years, the CDC warned.
According to the agency, some drugs can be used to fight the parasite, but there is a “low certainty” for their effectiveness.
The parasite now seems to be endemic in Texas as well as some border states.
“For every case that we got, we reported this data. And after those years, you’re just pulling those results together to do this report, on cases collected during 2005 to 2019,” said Marcos de Almeida, who had headed the CDC lab at the time.
“This genetic information adds credence to this idea that leishmaniasis is occurring here in the United States, it’s endemic here in the United States, at least in Texas and maybe southern border states,” Dr. Mary Kamb, of the CDC’s Division of Parasitic Diseases and Malaria, said in an interview with CBS News.