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Keele University researchers are running an international investigation into the sandfly parasite which causes the debilitating - and in some cases deadly - liver and skin disease leishmaniasis, which affects around 800,000 people annually.

Leishmania, the parasite which thrives in tropical and sub-tropical climates and is transmitted by several species of bloodsucking sandfly, is being examined by 20 researchers in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama. The disease includes three separate conditions: one attacks the liver and spleen; another causes skin ulcers on the limbs and face; and a third produces lesions of oral and nasal mucous membranes.

The European Union-funded project aims to identify the various species of the parasite, of which Keele-based Venezualan Rhaiza Maingon believes there are around ten. She and her colleague Richard Ward, professor of medical entymology, have recreated tropical conditions to breed sandflies in order to observe any molecular and behavioural differences.

The long-term aim is to establish alternative treatments. The current treatments, including the English-produced Pentostan, are extremely expensive.