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(reporter xie fei from people's daily health client) on september 14, the shanghai jing'an district people's court wechat official account published an article stating that the court recently concluded a personal insurance contract dispute case involving death due to infection caused by insect bites. the patient, mr. chen, was tested positive for the leishmania donovani species complex. the hospital comprehensively determined that mr. chen's illness was caused by sandfly bites, and the patient unfortunately died shortly after being discharged from the hospital.

on september 16, zhao lei, chief physician of the infectious department of union hospital affiliated to tongji medical college of huazhong university of science and technology, said in an interview with the people's daily health client that leishmania is the pathogen of kala-azar. typical symptoms after infection include fever, skin discoloration (especially on the face, hands, feet, abdomen, etc.), anemia, hepatosplenomegaly, lymphadenopathy, etc. if discovered early, antimony drugs are the first choice for clinical treatment, and most patients can recover. however, there is currently no vaccine specifically for leishmaniasis.

"sand flies are small, hairy insects similar to mosquitoes. in addition to biting and sucking blood, they can also spread a variety of diseases. in our country, it mainly spreads kala-azar (visceral leishmaniasis), which is listed as a class c infectious disease that is required to be reported in our country." zhao lei further explained that when a sand fly bites a person or animal infected with the kala-azar pathogen (leishmania), it will suck the blood containing leishmania into its body, and then become a carrier of the pathogen. if it bites a person or host animal again, it will transmit leishmania to the new host, causing illness in the person or host animal.

on june 12 this year, the chinese center for disease control and prevention published an article introducing that the distribution of sand flies has obvious regional characteristics, and their activities are affected by multiple factors such as climate, environment, ecological vegetation and human activities. in my country, they mainly appear in rural areas north of the yangtze river. in recent years, cases of kala-azar have reappeared in historical epidemic areas in central my country, such as henan, shanxi, shaanxi, hebei, and beijing, while the incidence in epidemic areas in xinjiang, gansu, sichuan, and inner mongolia has decreased.

"sand flies are distributed all over the world. there are also many types in my country, such as the chinese sand fly, which are more common in rural areas. in recent years, due to the good prevention and control measures in my country, there are relatively few clinical cases of kala-azar." zhao lei said that even so, september is the active period of sand flies, and prevention of bites from blood-sucking insects such as sand flies is still essential. the key to preventing kala-azar lies in comprehensive prevention, including managing the source of infection, eliminating the transmission medium such as sand flies, and strengthening personal protection.

on august 31, the henan center for disease control and prevention issued a document stating that to prevent sandfly bites, it is recommended to use pyrethroid insecticides to thoroughly clean sandfly breeding grounds such as livestock houses, poultry houses, dog kennels, empty houses, and cave dwellings before the active sandfly season from may to september to reduce the breeding grounds of sandflies. for home-dwelling and near-home-dwelling sandflies, insecticides containing cypermethrin can be used to spray indoor and outdoor sandfly hiding places to eliminate sandflies. once long-term irregular fever, night sweats, weight loss, progressive splenomegaly, mild or moderate hepatomegaly, pancytopenia and hyperglobulinemia, or symptoms such as nose bleeding and gingival bleeding occur, seek medical treatment in a timely manner.