A parasite capable of causing a disfiguring skin disease may be endemic in Texas and present in other southern states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. From 2005 to 2019, the CDC identified 1,222 cases in the U.S. that were positive for Leishmania, a parasite transmitted through the bites of infected female sandflies. The parasite can cause a disease called leishmaniasis, which usually results in skin sores that develop within a few weeks or months after a bite. Leishmaniasis cases in the U.S. are typically found in people who traveled outside the country to tropical or subtropical climates — particularly those in the Middle East, central Asia, northern Africa and Latin America. But the CDC said 86 of the Leishmania samples were from people with no recent history of travel outside the U.S. The researchers also detected a unique strain of Leishmania that appeared to be genetically distinct from travel-related cases, suggesting it w...
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