Kathmandu, Apr. 22 : Some 5.5 million people of 13 east Terai districts in Nepal are at risk of Kala Azar (visceral leishemjaniasis), according to health experts.
Kala Azar is a tropical disease characterized by irregular fever, enlargement of the spleen, hemorrhages and emaciation leading to the death of the patient in extreme cases.
It is said Kala Azar still affects thousands of people in those districts and claims the lives of hundreds of them every year.
According to reports, in the year 1999 alone the disease affected 1,427 persons and claimed the lives of eight in Parsa, Rautahat, Sarlahi, Mahottari, Dhanusha, Siraha, Saptari, Sunsari, Udayapur, Morang and Jhapa district bordering India.
In 1980 the disease at first was found to have affected a populatIon of 1.5 per 100,000 while 13,251 persons were affected and 251 died from the disease in 1998. Similarly, the disease was reported in 805 persons in those districts in 1998 out of which ten died.
While His Majesty’s Government has been distributing medicines and implementing preventive programmes in those districts, the government is now going to review the programme and launch a special anti-kalazar programme campaign in three phases in Janakpur from May 2-8.
The programme to be organised by the epidemiology and disease control division of the department of health under the Ministry of Health is expected to hold a series of meetings of the policy groups against Kala Azar, review the policies and programmes on Kala Azar prevention and control and mobilize community participation and partnership for this purpose.
The disease, which is spread by the sand fly, can even claim lives of the affected person if proper care and treatment is not given in time, said Dr. Mahendra Bahadur Bista, the acting director General of the Department of health.
The disease is taking its toll of human lives due to incomplete medication or abandoning the treatment mid-way. The patients are usually required to undergo a complete month-long medication for treatment of Kala Azar. But since many abandon the medicaiton mid-way spelling disaster, doctors say.