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Kala-azar breaks out in epidemic form in Rajshahi

From Abdul Wadood
RAJSHAHI, Sept 17: A tropical disease, popularly known as Kala-azar, that is endemic in some parts of Rajshahi district, has taken a serious town in recent days.
The disease has been spreading rapidly In new areas including the metropolitan area of the city.
According to the district Civil Surgeon Office, 161 people have been identified as patients of Kala-azar upto July 31 this year in different thanas of the district. Many other unidentified cases may remain. Civil Surgeon Office sources said.
Rajshahi Medical College Hospital sources informed, at least two to three patients suffering from Kala-azar remained admitted in each medicine wards. There are six such wards including one children ward in the hospital.
Godagari thana and a part of Poba thana are Kala-azar prone areas of the district. But recently the geographical trend of the disease had changed a little.
According to the Civil Surgeon Office, out of 161 Kala-azar patients, a total of 89 had come from Puthla thana.
In Godagari. 21 people had been attacked, whereas 18 people have attacked in Bagha thana. 14 people in Charghat thana, and 19 other people had , been attacked in other thanas of the district including Rajshahi metropolitan area.
The source acknowledged the increasing trend of Kala-azar in
both the endemic and new areas, but said that the situation was under full control and not alarming at all.
Serious water-logging caused by frequent heavy rains in the areas during the current rainy season might be the cause of spread of the disease.
Kala-azar patients of the city corporation area have come from Dingadoa and Kazla areas which have been submerged and seriously water-logged this year.
Most of Kala—azar patients are children and adolescents.
The Civil Surgeon Office informed that special measures had been taken to prevent the disease. The health workers have been working round the clock in the badly affected areas of Puthla. Godagari, Bagha and Charghat. A Kala-azar control project has been started in Godagari thana, while DDT have been sprayed in the areas. About 8,000 houses and their surroundings have so far been sprayed. Several hundred mosquito-curtains have also been distributed among the poor people.
The medical name'of Kala-azar is Visceral Leishmaniasis and is caused by a protozoa Leishmania donovani
According to the concerned sources, the organism of
Kala-azar-lelshmanla donovani is conveyed by sand-Sand man appears to be the ief host. Young children and tourists are mostly attacked by
the disease.
The disease starts with a low grade fever that may be transformed into high intermittent fever sometimes showing a double-rise temperature in 24 hours with sweating. The spleen soon becomes enlarged. If not treated, which usualfy happens, the patient becomes anaemic and wasted and pigmentation, that is blackening of the body, especially the face.
As the sandfly is the carrier of the disease agent, control of sandfly is the main means of prevention of Kala-azar. To control sandfly, experts suggest to remove shrubs and vegetations from the surroundings of human dwellings, fill up cracks and crevices in the walls and floors of the houses and make cattlesheds and poultry houses at a fair distance from human habitations as well as spread DDT in the houses and surroundings.
Use of mosquito nett In the night or anytime when required. is another effective measure to prevent infection of Kala-azar by sandfly.
Expert s observe that rural people do not want to break their traditional ways of living. It has become the main obstacle of preventing Kala-azar in these areas of Rajshahi.
Water-logging and dogs and foxes everywhere tn these areas also contribute considerably to high-breeding of sandfly and ultimately high spreading of Kala-azar.