LAHORE - The University of Health Sciences (UHS) and Pak One Health Alliance (POHA) have joined hands to create awareness about and build the capacity of health managers to deal with Leishmaniasis (commonly called Kala-Azar), a vector borne infectious skin disease which has been found as a growing health threat affecting poor communities in the country.
The two organisations will hold a series of orientation and planning sessions for district health managers with regards to the disease. The first such session was organised in Islamabad last week in which district health authorities of Punjab and Azad Jammu & Kashmir participated.
Leishmaniasis, one of the world’s oldest recorded diseases dating back to the 7th century BC, is an entirely treatable parasitic disease spread by female sandflies.
According to WHO, around 310 million people are estimated to be at risk globally, with around 1.6 million new cases each year across 98 countries. The disease can lead to distressing and disfiguring skin ulcers and scarring, while visceral leishmaniasis, which affects organs such as the liver and spleen, is invariably fatal if not treated. Over 40,000 people die from the disease every year, making it the second-largest parasitic killer in the world after malaria.
The internationally funded project is based on the finding of a research carried out by Connecting Organizations for Regional Disease Surveillance (CORDS) in 2015 in Albania, Jordan and Pakistan.
According to a research, there are an estimated 50,000 new cases of cutaneous leishmaniasis (commonly known as Oriental Sore or Delhi Boil), the predominant form of leishmaniasis in Pakistan, each year. It is an emerging disease, initially prevalent in refugee communities from Afghanistan, which has also become established in host communities in Balochistan and elsewhere in north-west Pakistan. The research pointed out that key problem in Pakistan is a lack of access to low cost, quality assured drugs to treat the condition, particularly in deprived communities. This has resulted in a market for counterfeit and smuggled drugs of dubious quality, which can have harmful impacts on those being treated. A major barrier to the treatment of leishmaniases is limited budget.
In this regard, UHS Registrar Dr Asad Zaheer, who is also the focal person of the University in this project, said that apart from the physical effects, the disease also causes psychological and social stigma from the ulcers and scarring of cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL), which can lead to exclusion from society due to the mistaken belief that the disease is directly contagious.
“At a time when diseases such as Dengue, Ebola, malaria and influenza epidemics have created worldwide awareness of the devastating impact that infectious diseases can have on communities ill-equipped to deal with outbreaks, leishmaniasis is still very much a growing, but neglected disease,” he said, adding that co-ordinated efforts were needed to raise awareness and interest, as a critical step in addressing the major gaps identified in the treatment and prevention of this and similar vector-borne diseases.
POHA CEO Dr SM Mursalin said in Pakistan there is also an urgent need to build corresponding capacities (skills, services, equipment and drug supplies) to improve detection and response to vector-borne diseases.
He said that in 2015, district Chakwal was reported to have highest cases of leishmaniasis (2825 cases). It was followed by Lahore (397 cases), Khushab (396 cases), Mianwali (387 cases), Jhelum (272 cases) and district Multan (186 cases). He said that in the first meeting preliminary impressions for three districts (Jhelum, Multan and Chakwal) were shared with the concern district health authorities.
Candid discussions were held and it was concluded that such meetings should be trickled down to the district levels for improving the capacity of district health staff and for wider advocacy of the community on management of the vector borne disease.