A rare case of visceral leishmaniasis misdiagnosed as systemic lupus erythematosus

Abstract

Abstract Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is an infectious disease caused by Leishmania donovani and transmitted by sandflies. It can be life‐threatening if not treated. Common clinical features of VL include recurrent fever, pancytopenia, splenomegaly, and a variety of positive autoantibodies, which can lead to a misdiagnosis of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). We report the case of a 25‐year‐old woman with VL misdiagnosed as SLE to add to the existing literature on this subject.

Keywords

• kala‐azar
• Leishmania donovani
• systemic lupus erythematosus
• visceral leishmaniasis