An overview of leishmanization experience: A successful control measure and a tool to evaluate candidate vaccines

Leishmanization (LZ) is an intradermal inoculation of live Leishmania to induce an artificial cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) lesion in a covered part of the body to protect against further natural CL lesion development. Leishmanization has been used from ancient times and when NNN medium was developed continued with using Leishmania from culture media. The objective of this study was to review LZ published experiences. This article is a review of LZ experiences and historical studies initiated since 1910 when Leishmania promastigotes were harvested from culture media and used for LZ. This review includes LZ experiences in Israel, some countries of Former Soviet Union and Iran. The results of LZ in Israel, some countries of Former Soviet Union and Iran showed that despite limitations, using this method significantly reduced the incidence rate of CL among leishmanized individuals in endemic areas. In conclusion, leishmanization using Leishmania major produced under GMP guideline is a valuable tool to protect against CL, there are limitations which need further study.