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he was dealing with American cutaneous leishmaniasis since the patient 

 acquired the lesion while traveling in South America (Stewart and 

 Pi 1 cher, 1945). At that early date, differentiation between oriental 

 sore and American cutaneous leishmaniasis had not been made, nor had 

 any vectors been incriminated. 



In 1919, Parman drew attention to a " Phlebotomus " species in 

 Uvalde, Texas, and noted that it attacked man. He did not attempt to 

 implicate it in disease transmission. This fly, described and named 

 Phlebotomus ( Brumptomyia ) diabol icus by Hall in 1936, represented the 

 first confirmed anthropophi 1 ic species of the genus Phi ebotomus (now 

 Lutzomyia ) from the USA. Lindquist (1936) stated that this species 

 was not a major pest in Uvalde, but that it frequently caused some 

 annoyance to people in southwestern Texas. He described a 

 peridomestic fly that often entered dwellings and other buildings to 

 feed on man and domestic animals. At that time, species of 

 Phlebotomus had been incriminated in the transmission of Phlebotomus 

 fever but were only suspected to play a role in the transmission of 

 leishmaniasis. Consequently, the fly was considered to be of little 

 importance other than being a nuisance. 



Prior to 1943, approximately 30 human cases of cutaneous 

 leishmaniasis (oriental sore) had been reported from the USA and 

 Canada (Dwork, 1942), none of which (with one possible exception), were 

 autochthonous. The possible exception was a case reported by Gelber 

 (1942) in a 53-year-old woman from southern California who had a 

 typical leishmanial lesion on her left cheek. This case was thought 

 to be autochthonous because the woman had not left the country for 13 

 years. But since she had made an earlier tour of Europe and the 



