Leishmania: Introduction

00:01 Hello and welcome to Leishmania. This is one of a series of lectures where we'll look in depth at individual human parasites. After you hear this lecture, you will understand the lifecycle of leishmania and how it's transmitted to humans. You'll be familiar with the pathogenesis of the different forms of leishmaniasis and you'll understand how to prevent and treat leishmaniasis.

00:33 We've been looking at a series of protozoan parasites and just to remind you, these are single celled eukaryotes of medical importance. We've looked at plasmodium, toxoplasma and now let's take a look at the leishmania. Here is a photograph of the blood form of leishmania, these are flagellated protozoan parasites, and leishmania come in a variety of species which are medically important.