On this date in 1903, British pathologist William Boog Leishman wrote about the protozoa that causes kala-azar, or dumdum fever. This is a serious infection that occurs when a parasite-infected sandfly bites someone. Leishman first discovered the parasite in 1900, but delayed publishing anything about it, or the disease that it causes, until three years later. At that point, he was forced to share its discovery with researcher C. Donovan, who made the same discovery independently. Dumdum fever still occurs in Mediterranean countries as well as in Africa, Asia and Latin America. It affects the liver, spleen, bone marrow and other internal organs, and can be fatal if not treated properly. Symptoms include weight loss, fever, a plummeting white blood cell count and an enlarged spleen and liver.

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