Prevalence of histoplasmin sensitivity in Pakistan

A total of 575 subjects, comprising healthy men, women, and school children as well as pulmonary tuberculosis and leprosy patients in different areas of the Punjab region of Pakistan, were tested for histoplasmin skin sensitivity. All, with the exception of those who presumably had been exposed to the fungus in some other country, were found to be non-reactors to histoplasm. The preliminary findings suggest that histoplasmosis is not endemic in this area, as the general population seems to be free from exposure to the fungus Histoplasma capsulatum.