Kala-azar outbreak in the northeast

Six children have died at Wajir district hospital in northeastern Kenya over the past four weeks after an outbreak of kala-azar, a deadly parasitic disease characterised by anemia and the inflammation of the liver and spleen, a health official said on Wednesday. Ahmeddin Omar, the doctor in charge of the hospital, said 44 children were still under observation, several having been admitted in the past two days. "The hospital has enough drugs to treat patients for at least a month, depending on how many cases are received," he said. Most of the cases, he added, had come from Merti administrative division of the neighbouring Isiolo district. A campaign to educate parents about the disease was ongoing, Omar said, adding that health personnel had been mobilised from both Wajir and Isiolo to spray houses in a bid to kill the sand flies that spread the diseases. Kala-azar, known as visceral leishmaniasis, is caused by parasitic protozoa transmitted to humans by the bite of infected female sandfly, according to the United Nations World Health Organization. The disease lowers the immune system, causes persistent fever, anemia, liver and spleen enlargement, and is fatal if untreated. eo/mw