A travel misadventure--visceral leishmaniasis in an immunocompetent patient.

Visceral leishmaniasis is one of the world's most neglected diseases. Over 90% of the 500,000 annual new cases occur in only five countries: India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sudan and North-Eastern Brazil, but the disease remains endemic in Southern Europe. We report a case of visceral leishmaniasis in an immunocompetent serviceman after a seven-day stay in the Marseilles region of South-Eastern France. This case is intended to alert clinicians to the possibility of visceral leishmaniasis in patients who develop a febrile illness after returning from travel in Southern European countries.