Kala Azar plague hits Bihar hard

Muzaffrapur, Jul 2: Kala Azar (leishmaniasis) , the second largest bloodsucking killer in the world after malaria has hit Bihar so hard that the state reports 60% cases in the country.

The state has reported 12 deaths with about 6302 cases already registered till Mar.

Muzzaffarpur, already hit by encephalitis cases is now suffering from Kala Azar too.

"This is the time to act energetically and intensively otherwise it will lead to a big epidemic," said Former Union Health Minister, Dr C P Thakur.

The Bihar government in 2005 had assured that the government would ensure that the killer disease would be eradicated by 2010 but surprisingly the datas have only gone up in the last two years.

There were 21, 318 cases of Kala Azar registered in Bihar in 2009 and in 2010 the cases shot to 23, 084. But these numbers are just an assumption as there are possibilities of many cases going unnoticed..

"Most of the diseases are vector borne. Surprisingly, the Bihar government has no epidemiologist or entomologist. These facilities must be strengthened," said Deputy Director of RMRI, Dr Prabhat Sinha.

Kala Azar mainly called as the poor man's disease is a parasitic disease often caused by the bite of sand-fly. With lack of preventive measures and almost no spraying of insecticides , one can only be hopeful that the government takes a step soon.

OneIndia News