Human visceral leishmaniasis which is also known as ‘kala-azar’ or ‘black fever’ is a life threatening disease caused by Leishmania parasites. This is a great news for us, a diagnosis of human visceral leishmaniasis was established by Dr. Muhammad Manjurul Karim and his team which was published in Plos Global Public Health. There are different types of existing diagnosis methods already established, based on PCR and DNA extraction methods, by targeting different Leishmania spp. But those methods need a set of primers which brings sensitivity changes, low reproducibility, and specificity. Earlier, a novel set of primers named MK1 was developed by the team which is more specific and sensitive to their target. In this experiment, they used the same set of primers, using urine as the sample collected from the VL patients, followed by performing both conventional and real time PCR. Their experiment revealed the superior sensitivity and specificity by using novel primers MK1/R. Moreover, usage of urine as the sample was advantageous as it is non-invasive specimen which reduced the risk of Blood borne infection without compromising the diagnosis efficacy of VL in Bangladesh. Indeed, this is a great invention in VL diagnosis method with minimal risk, high diagnostic efficiency and cost-effective procedure than previous ones. Heartiest Congratulations to Prof. Karim and his team.

Composed by Shahina Ansary, Graduate Student, Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB)