Table 1. Overview of included studies from the published literature search.

Year, Location	Author	Type of Publication	Summary	Ref
1966, Middle Shebelle	Baruffa	Journal article	Describing the problem of kala-azar in Somalia.	[40]
1968, Middle Shebelle	Cahill KM	Journal article	Describing epidemiology and clinical features of kala-azar patients in east Africa, including in Somalia.	[38]
1971, Middle Shebelle	Cahill KM	Journal article	Description of kala-azar patients seen in Somalia and mapping of the origins.	[39]
1995, Baidoa	Woolhead A	Journal article	Case report of VL in a woman from Baidoa and warning of potential outbreaks because of the war.	[43]
1995, Lower Juba and Middle Shebelle	Shiddo SA et al.	Journal article	Prevalence study using leishmanin skin test (LST) (positive in 26%) and serology (11%) in 438 village inhabitants. Hospital data showed male:female ratio was 3.3:1.	[41]
1995, Lower Juba and Middle Shebelle	Shiddo SA et al.	Journal article	A study to provide baseline data for antibody responses using DAT, IFAT and ELISA- all distinguished well sera from VL patients and healthy controls. DAT is recommended.	[42]
1995, Lower Juba and Middle Shebelle	Shiddo SA et al.	Journal article	Study reporting humoral and cell-mediated immunity amongst VL patients compared to healthy inhabitants.	[45]
1996, Lower Juba and Middle Shebelle	Shiddo SA et al.	Journal article	Study to determine the levels of IgG subclasses and IgE from 22 VL patients from Somalia, compared to healthy controls. Possible diagnostic role for western blot was found.	[46]
2001, northeastern Kenya	Boussery G et al.	Letter	Reported outbreak in 2000 amongst Somali refugees in Dadaab camps in Kenya, with 34 probable or confirmed VL patients. Median age was 15 years. Case fatality rate was 29.4%, and there was concern over situation inside Somalia and the nutrition situation.	[49]
2003, Somalia, northeastern Kenya, southwestern Ethiopia	Marlet MVL et al.	Journal article	In 2000 and 2001, 904 patients with VL were diagnosed from areas which were known as previously nonendemic for VL or had only sporadic cases prior to the epidemic.	[21]
2003, Bakool	Marlet MVL et al.	Journal article	Description of new VL focus in Bakool region, Somalia, an area where VL had not been reported before. In one year, 230 serologically positive cases were diagnosed as VL, with a cure rate of 91.6% with SSG. Additionally, a serological survey of 161 healthy displaced persons found 24 (15%) positive by the LST and three (2%) positive by the DAT.	[22]
2007, Bakool	Raguenaud ME et al.	Journal article	Retrospective analysis of MSF VL data from 2004 to 2006. After an average of 140 admissions per year, a 7-fold increase happened in 2006. 82% of total patients treated for VL originated from Huddur and Tijelow districts. Clinical recovery rate was 93.2% and case fatality rate was 3.9%.	[50]

DAT: direct agglutination test; IFAT: indirect fluorescent antibody test; IgG: immunoglobulin G; IgE: immunoglobulin E; SSG: sodium stibogluconate.