Immunotherapy of American cutaneous leishmaniasis in Venezuela during the period 1990-99

Of a total of 11532 Venezuelan patients with American cutaneous leishmaniasis (ACL) receiving immunotherapy with a combined vaccine containing heat-killed Leishmania promastigotes and bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) during the period 1990-99, we evaluated 5341 from 4 widely separated geographical states. Clinical healing varied from 91.2 to 98.7%, with an average of 95.7%. Adverse reactions were mild and limited to those associated with BCG vaccination alone. Immunotherapy failures in 143 patients included 54.5% with typical localized ulcers and 45.5% with non-mucosal intermediate cutaneous leishmaniasis (ICL). Less than 2% of the patients in this study had lesions suggestive of ICL. The disproportionately large number of immunotherapy failures in the ICL group suggests that it should not be used as monotherapy in this group. Weaker reactivity to purified protein derivative in immunotherapy failures, while not statistically significant in the small group reported here, suggests the possibility that these patients develop a relatively torpid immune response. The high percentage of clinical cures achieved with immunotherapy, associated with few secondary effects and low cost, support the use of immunotherapy in the routine treatment of localized ACL.