Leishmaniases are infectious diseases 9f protozoan origin that represent an increasing public health problem worldwide (1). There are indications that these diseases also affect an increasing number of immuno compromised patients in some areas of developed countries (2). The organisms responsible for these diseases are trypanosoma tid protozoans of the genus Leishmania. The parasites are transmitted to their mammalian hosts by the bite of an infected phlebotomine sandfly. The life cycle of all species of Leishmania includes two developmentally and morphologically distinct forms:(a) the extracellular, flagellated promastigotes which col onize the digestive tract of the insect vector, and (b) the sessile amastigotes which are found exclusively as obligate intracellular parasites within cells of the mammalian reticuloendothelial system (3). Infection of humans with Leishmania results in a broad spectrum of disease profiles whose features depend upon the characteristics of the different Leishmania species and the efficiency of the host's immunological response to the parasite (4). That natural self-healing infection leads to the development of immunity to reinfection strongly suggests that control of leishmaniasis by prophylactic immunizaton is possible.