Leishmania (Mundinia) orientalis n. sp. (Trypanosomatidae), a parasite from Thailand responsible for localised cutaneous leishmaniasis

Background Leishmaniasis is an emerging disease in Thailand with an unknown incidence or prevalence. Although the number of properly characterized and clinically confirmed cases is about 20, it is suspected that this low number masks a potentially high prevalence, with clinical disease typically manifesting itself against an immunocompromised background, but with a substantial number of subclinical or cured cases of infection. To date leishmaniasis in Thailand has been mainly ascribed to two taxa within the recently erected subgenus Mundinia Shaw, Camargo & Teixeira, 2016, Leishmania (Mundinia) martiniquensis Desbois, Pratlong & Dedet, 2014 and a species that has not been formally described prior to this study.