Malta had been an endemic area for Kala-azar long before Critien made the diagnosis of the first case of infantile leishmaniasis in 1911. There is no doubt that the dramatic drop in the incidence which has occurred since 1948 must be related to the general improvement in sanitation. The purpose of this preliminary study was to confirm the hypothesis that actual cases of Kala-azar are a microfocus of infection in the community as well as to assess the usefulness of this skin test in epidemiological work. It is likely that the leishmanin skin test can prove as useful in the study of the epidemiology of leishmaniases as the tuberculin test in tuberculosis.peer-reviewe
