Leishmaniases are parasitic diseases caused by protozoan flagellates of the genus Leishmania, parasites infecting numerous mammal species, including humans, and transmitted through the infective bite of an insect vector, the phlebotomine sandfly.

The Leishmaniases threaten 350 million people in 88 countries of four continents. The annual incidence of new cases is estimated between 1.5 and 2 million.^[1] In numerous underdeveloped countries, they remain a major public health problem.

The genus Leishmania includes around 30 different taxa, the majority of which commonly infect humans, in whom they are responsible for various types of disease: visceral, cutaneous (of localized or diffuse type) and mucocutaneous leishmaniases. This variability of the clinical features results from both the diversity of the Leishmania species and the immune response of the hosts.