[leish-l] Leishmaniasis - Sudan

[Fred R. Opperdoes]

At 3:05 -0500 12/11/02, ProMED Digest wrote:
>Date: Sun, 10 Nov 2002 17:59:47 -0500 (EST)
>From: ProMED-mail <promed at promed.isid.harvard.edu>
>Subject: PRO/EDR> Leishmaniasis - Sudan
>
>LEISHMANIASIS - SUDAN
>***********************
>A ProMED-mail post
><http://www.promedmail.org
>ProMED-mail, a program of the
>International Society for Infectious Diseases
><http://www.isid.org
>
>Date: 8 Nov 2002
>From: "Pablo Nart" <p.nart at virgin.net>
>Source: CNN.com
>http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/africa/11/08/health.sudan.reut/index.html
>
>
>Increase in Leishmania in southern Sudan
>- ---------------------------
>A severe outbreak of the fly-borne parasitic disease Kala Azar is
>devastating some southern Sudanese communities exhausted by
>malnutrition and war, medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF)
>said Friday. Kala Azar, or Visceral Leishmaniasis, is transmitted by
>the tiny sand fly and attacks people weakened by hunger and fatigue.
>Fatal if untreated, the disease disrupts the liver and spleen,
>causing fever and severe weight loss and an enlarged spleen. "It is
>an overwhelming scene, with so many of the people coming to the
>clinic every day more dead than alive," an MSF statement quoted MSF
>Operational Director Jose-Antonio Bastos as saying. "The state of
>these patients is appalling. They are being carried on stretchers for
>days to make it to the clinic. They look pale and thin and are
>extremely anemic." The disease is endemic in parts of the Eastern
>African nations of Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia and usually peaks at
>this time of year. But the strength of the current out-break is
>exceptional and shows a dramatic increase compared to the same
>seasons in recent years, MSF said. "While peace talks go on, large
>parts of southern Sudan are still inaccessible to aid organizations
>and diseases like Kala Azar continue to claim
>thousands of lives," MSF said. Sudan's government and southern rebels
>are holding peace talks in Kenya to try to end a war that has killed
>an estimated two million people since it began in 1983. The rebels in
>the south, which is mainly animist with a small percentage of
>Christians and Muslims, have been fighting for more autonomy from the
>mainly Muslim north. One MSF official contacted by telephone said he
>knew of hundreds of Sudanese, almost all of them from communities
>uprooted by war, who were suffering the disease and who would almost
>certainly die without medical attention.
>
>- --
>ProMED-mail
>promed at promedmail.org
>
>[Leishmaniasis is endemic in Sudan. The absence of control measures
>in the areas affected by the civil war may be an explanation for the
>present epidemic. Leishmaniasis is one of the infections associated
>with HIV infection and HIV may be an associated factor in an increase
>in Leishmaniasis. - Mod.EP]
>
>[See also:
>1998
>- --
>Leishmaniasis - Sudan (02)	19980125.0180
>Leishmaniasis - Sudan	19980123.0169]
>..........................ep/lm
>