India misses Kala Azar elimination deadline

•  India has missed the 2017 deadline that Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had announced for elimination of Kala Azar (black fever) in his Budget speech last year.
• In fact, endemic blocks have increased from 61 to 68 in 17 districts of Bihar and Jharkhand.
• Elimination is defined as reducing the annual incidence of Kala Azar (KA) to less than 1 case per 10,000 people at the sub-district level.
• Further, a little-known skin condition called Post Kala Azar Dermal Leishmaniasis (PKDL) — a red flag for transmission of KA — has been growing steadily over the past few years.
• KA is a slow progressing indigenous disease caused by a single-celled parasite of the Leishmania family.
• KA vector needs to be eliminated to eliminate Kala Azar. As the endemic blocks have majority of houses made from wood, it is very difficult to eliminate the vector as it dwells in the wooden structure and escapes various measures to kill it. Hence, to stop the infection transmission, pucca houses need to be built. Secondly even after treatment of Kala Azar patients, it is the PKDL cases which become a source for future KA cases

About Kala Azar:

• Visceral leishmaniasis (VL), also known as kala-azar, black fever, and Dumdum fever, is the most severe form of leishmaniasis and, without proper diagnosis and treatment, is associated with high fatality.
• It is caused by protozoan parasites of the Leishmania genus. migrates to the internal organs such as the liver, spleen (hence “visceral”), and bone marrow
• Signs and symptoms include fever, weight loss, fatigue, anemia, and substantial swelling of the liver and spleen.

By: Vishal