Leishmaniasis: drugs in the clinic, resistance and new developments

The control of Leishmania infections relies primarily on chemotherapy. The arsenal of drugs available for treating Leishmania infections is limited and includes pentavalent antimonials, pentamidine, amphotericin B, miltefosine, fluconazole and few other drugs at various stages of their development process. In this review, we will discuss the latest results regarding resistance mechanisms to drugs used in the clinic against Leishmania infections. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.