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Some 350 million people in 98 countries are at risk annually for developing cutaneous, mucocutaneous, or visceral leishmaniasis caused by Leishmania parasites found in various tropical and subtropical species. Approximately 12 million people contract the disease each year, and severe cases develop predominantly in immunocompromised patients.
Current treatment with amphotericin B or miltefosine is expensive, toxic, and of limited efficacy, and although azole antifungals have been shown to inhibit the parasites' ergosterol synthesis, the short half-lives of currently available agents have limited their further development as antileishmanial agents. Now, researchers in Brazil have presented initial in vitro data on the antileishmanial activity …