Treatment of Cutaneous Leishmaniasis: Study of Phase III Shows Antibiotic Cream Has High Cure Rate, Few Side Effects

An international research partnership from Tunisia, France and the United States has demonstrated a high cure rate and remarkably few side effects in treating patients with cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) with an antibiotic cream. CL is a parasitic disease that causes disfiguring lesions and affects 1.5 million people worldwide annually, including the socio-economically disadvantaged in the developing world, especially children. The results of the study conducted by the Institut Pasteur de Tunis, the Institut Pasteur (Paris) and U.S. medical researchers were published today in the New England Journal of Medicine.