*2.2.1. History*

The first case of VL in Tunisia was reported by Laveran and Cathoire in 1904 [64] in the region of La Goulette, north of the country. Between 1904 and 1908, Charles Nicolle reported two new VL cases of children living in Tunis (north of the country). Since this date and till 1935, Charles Nicolle and collaborators reported 120 new VL cases mainly distributed in the north (Tunis, Bizerte, Zaghouan, Grombalia, Beja, and El Kef), the centre (Sousse and Kairouan) with one case in Tozeur (south of Tunisia) [65]. Some outbreaks of VL were reported in centre Tunisia mainly Kairouan where 247 cases were reported between 1984 and 1996 [66].

Since the description of VL in Tunisia, the annual incidence has increased progressively going from three cases in beginning of the twentieth century to 57 in the 1980s of the same century [66]. Currently, VL in Tunisia shows a stable incidence of about 100 cases per year [67, 68].
