Sun, sangria and sandflies: Leishmaniasis in an immunosuppressed patient returning from Spain

SummaryDespite the global financial downturn, millions of people continue to travel abroad each year. Many travel with co-morbidities such as immunosuppression, placing them at greater risk of bacterial, viral and parasitic infections.1 Leishmaniasis is one of the principal neglected tropical diseases.2 Although it threatens 350 million people each year3 it is not an infection that most General Physicians would associate with travel to Southern Europe.A case of visceral leishmaniasis is described in a lady with mild immunosuppression caused by systemic lupus erythematosus, following a holiday in Southern Spain, a destination not normally associated with this leishmaniasis.