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shack in rather unsanitary conditions. He reported no travel outside 

 the USA except for two half-day visits to Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. The 

 authors conducted epidemiologic studies in the neighborhoods and 

 communities surrounding the two case sites but collected no sand 

 flies. They concluded that conditions may be proper in south central 

 Texas for arthropod-borne transmission of cutaneous leishmaniasis, and 

 that the suspected endemicity of the disease should be confirmed by 

 further studies. 



Interest in the epidemiology of leishmaniasis in Texas mounted 

 slowly until, in 1980, cutaneous leishmaniasis (L. mexicana mexicana ) 

 was diagnosed in a 11-year-old boy from Uvalde, Texas, the same 

 locality in which the first confirmed anthropophi 1 ic species of sand 

 fly in the USA ( Lu . diabol ica ) was found (Gustafson et aj_., 1984). 

 The boy was presumed to have contracted the disease near his home or 

 while on camping trips in south central Texas, since his travel had 

 been limited. 



In that same year, Anderson et aj_. (1980) reported endemic canine 

 leishmaniasis in dogs near Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The parasite most 

 closely resembles L. donovani infantum (Kocan et aj_., 1984). These 

 instances further emphasize the need to study the epidemiology of 

 leishmaniasis in the USA. 



In 1981, Perkins (1982) demonstrated for the first time that an 

 anthropophi 1 ic USA sand fly, Lu_. shannoni , could be experimentally 

 infected with an indigenous strain of L mexicana (strain WR-411, 

 Uvalde, Texas) by feeding them on histocytomas on infected hamsters. 

 Although transmission was not accomplished at that time, the ground 

 work was laid for further studies. Later that same year Endris et al. 



