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The article discusses a study on the genetic aspects associated with the development of visceral leishmaniasis.

Thirteen drug companies, the governments of the United States, Britain and the United Arab Emirates, the World Bank, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Lions Club and other smaller charitable organizations on Monday announced a joint effort to tackle 10 neglected tropical diseases in a coordinated fashion. The diseases, with multisyllabic names like lymphatic filariasis, visceral leishmaniasis and dracunculiasis, are almost never found in rich countries. Most are usually not fatal -- but they still ruin the lives of subsistence farmers and rural craftsmen by causing blindness, grotesque swelling, chronic anemia, excruciating pain or other symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A four-year test of drugs to treat a widespread parasitic disease called kala azar was announced on Monday by the governments of India and Bangladesh, Doctors Without Borders, the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative and other groups. Kala azar, also known as visceral leishmaniasis, is transmitted by the bite of sand flies smaller than mosquitoes. On the skin, it causes cratered sores; dozens of the first American troops in Iraq in 2003 suffered from it and ruefully nicknamed it the ''Baghdad boil.'' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers world news briefs. In Great Britain, two men were charged with receiving and financing terrorism training. A Russian military helicopter has been crashed that was carrying senior officers who were on an inspection tour. Indian government has approved the antibiotic paromomycin for the treatment of visceral leishmaniasis, a parasitic disease.

Discusses a study which revealed the effectiveness of miltefosine, a drug originally developed to treat breast cancer, in curing visceral leishmaniasis.

Deals with the launching of a drug against visceral leishmaniasis by German scientists and the World Health Organization in June 2002.