GETTY The flesh-eating skin disease could already be in Europe

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Experts are comparing it to Ebola and warn it could rip-through Europe as the putrid conditions many of the overcrowded refugee camps make it fertile breeding ground for the parasitic infection to spread. The horrific disease, which often attacks the face, is becoming rife in ISIS strongholds because the twisted terrorists are leaving bodies to rot in the streets and destroying medical facilities capable of treating it.

GETTY Rotting bodies, poor sanitation and no medical facilities let virus spread

Cutaneous leishmaniasis, spread by infected sand flies, was a rare condition until ISIS seized control of swathes of Syria, killing thousands of health workers. The disgusting conditions in jihadi-held cities such as Raqqa, Deir al-Zour and Hasakah made it easy for the disease, which causes the skin to change colour and leaves severe scarring, to spread. But, because more than four million civilians have fled Syria, the sickness is rampaging across the region, with hundreds of cases now being reported in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan.

GETTY Thousands of new cases have sprung-up across the Middle East after ISIS emerged

Between 2000 and 2012, there were only six reported cases of the disease in Lebanon, but in 2013 alone there were 1,033 cases, of which 96 per cent occurred among the displaced Syrian refugees, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health. With thousands of terrified civilians flocking to Europe, there are fears that the bug could already be on the continent. Tropical medicine expert Dr Waleed Al-Salem, said: "It's a very bad situation. The disease has spread dramatically in Syria, but also into countries like Iraq, Lebanon, Turkey and even into southern Europe with refugees coming in.

GETTY Cutaneous leishmaniasis often attacks the face and causes permanent scarring

Someone might have picked it up in Syria but then they may have fled into Lebanon or Turkey, or even into Europe as they seek refuge Dr Waleed Al-Salem

"There are thousands of cases in the region but it is still underestimated because no one can count the exact number of people affected. "When people are bitten by a sand-fly - which are tiny and smaller than a mosquito - it can take anything between two to six months to have the infection. "So someone might have picked it up in Syria but then they may have fled into Lebanon or Turkey, or even into Europe as they seek refuge."

GETTY Squalid conditions in Calais' refugee camp could make for perfect breeding ground

He added: "Prior to the outbreak of war there was good control of diseases, parasites and sand flies but when the conflict started no one cared, conditions worsened and the health system broke down, which has created an ideal environment for disease outbreaks." Peter Hotez, dean of the US National School of Tropical Medicine, said: "We need to ring fence them or risk another situation like Ebola out of the conflict zones in West Africa in 2014." He added: "We are only getting glimpses of the situation from refugees fleeing the conflict zones and going to camps in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey."

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