Sharp rise in kala azar cases

A dramatic increase in the potentially fatal liver disease, kala azar, is threatening southern communites already weakened by the country's 19-year civil war, the international organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) warned. "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 anaemic," Jose Antonio Bastos, MSF Operational Director, said in a statement on Friday. Kala azar, or visceral leishmaniasis, is a parasitic disease transmitted by the sandfly, which attacks the liver and the spleen causing fever and severe weight loss. The disease is very often fatal if left untreated. In Lankien, eastern Upper Nile, MSF said it had received over 100 kala azar admissions each week for the last six weeks, and in Malakal, also eastern Upper Nile, over 200 patients were currently being treated. Weakened by years of conflict, much of the southern population had been left "extremely vulnerable" to disease, and reports from neighbouring areas suggested that prevalence rates would be high there as well. Although the disease is endemic in parts of Sudan and usually peaks at this time of year, the current outbreak was at an "exceptional" level, and showed a dramatic increase compared to previous years, the statement said. "Insecurity, malnutrition and poor access to health care lower the people's natural resistance to diseases and make for an environment where outbreaks like the current one occur," Batsos said. "There is a clear overlap of those areas where kala azar is endemic and areas of conflict." However, a cessation of hostilities agreement signed between the Sudanese government and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) in October, prior to a resumption of peace talks, has paved the way for easing restrictions on humanitarian access in the south. "The ceasefire agreement may mean that we can soon get into areas that we have not been able to reach until now," Bastos noted.