Visceral leishmaniasis treatment, Italy.

First-line drug treatment was recorded in 573 immunocompetent patients with visceral leishmaniasis in Italy. In the past 12 years, the proportion of antimonial treatments decreased from 100% to 2.8%, while the proportion of amphotericin B treatments increased from 0% to 97.2%. The countrywide change in therapy is a response to both disease reemergence and increasing antimonial failure.