Sandfly-borne diseases - especially leishmaniasis - have persisted within Europe despite considerable control attempts. The close association of these vectors with human habitation in the Mediterranean region ensures transmission to humans from domestic and other animal reservoirs. The reduced effectiveness of existing chemotherapies (especially in cases of co-infection with HIV), the lack of any vaccine and the likelihood of spread with increasing global and environmental changes make leishmaniasis a key disease within EDEN.

The objectives of EDEN-LEI are : i) to quantifying the relative roles of specific environmental and climatic factors as determinants of the abundance of vector species and races and the prevalence of strains of Leishmania infantum in humans and domestic dogs in representative field sites ii) in order to create the first pan-European risk maps of the European distributions of the diverse range of strains of Leishmania and their main vectors.