Kala-azar in north-western India: a study of 24 patients

Twenty-four sporadic cases of kala-azar diagnosed over an 11-year period in a referral medical centre in north-western India are reported. Most of the patients were residents of non-endemic areas or where endemicity was low. Certain unusual clinical and laboratory features were seen in some of the cases, namely, lymphadenopathy, nasopharyngeal growth, acute and chronic hepatic involvement and portal hypertension. Awareness of the occurrence of the disease and of its protean modes of presentation was found to be an important factor in early diagnosis.