Thomas Dorlo leads international study with focus on neglected tropical skin disease

“Post kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis belongs to what the WHO defines as neglected diseases: a term including lack of effective drugs and infrastructures incapable of meeting needs of care. This specific disease is mainly found in Sudan and the Indian subcontinent, but we still lack sufficient knowledge to offer optimal treatment.”

How does this disease manifest itself?
“It is a tropical skin infection caused by leishmania parasites that leads to lesions that are not painful but highly stigmatizing. This means that many people wait to seek treatment, which in turn leads to the symptoms often worsening unnecessarily. Available treatments are mainly aimed at accelerating the healing of extensive lesions, but we do not yet know how long treatments are required to stop the continued spread of the parasites, and now we aim to answer this question.”

How will you set up the project?
“In collaboration with the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi), the University of Khartoum and Banaras Hindu University, we will identify markers that are predictive of clearing the parasite and that the lesions are responding as intended to the treatment. With the results we obtain, we aim to formulate optimal treatment regimens that also help prevent the parasite from spreading via sand flies. If we also succeed in developing novel composite endpoints, we hope to pave the way for shortened and more effective clinical trials.”

How is it that we in 2025 still lack sufficient knowledge about the disease?
“These are diseases that primarily affect poor patient groups in countries where healthcare systems generally face challenges providing the few drugs that are available. Therefore, the industry's incentives to engage are quite weak, but now we have repeatedly shown what public organisations can accomplish with strategic funding. And if I may wish, it would be for our elected officials to even stronger prioritize the long-term conditions required to pursue research initiatives and drug development for the patients who need it most. Right now, I am very grateful to Dioraphte for their invaluable support that helps us help all patients affected by this disease to be at least less neglected.”

text: Magnus Alsne, photo: Mikael Wallerstedt a o