Health ministers of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal and Thailand vowed to work together to eliminate Visceral Leishmaniasis (kala-azar) from their countries.
The ministers of South East Asia Region (SEAR) made the pledge at the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in the capital yesterday.
The MoU was signed on the after the inauguration of the Thirty-second Meeting of Ministers of Health and the Sixty-seventh Session of the WHO Regional Committee for South-East Asia.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the four-day programme as chief guest.
Bangladesh Health Minister Mohammed Nasim, Bhutanese Health Minister Lyonpo Tandin Wangchuk, Indian Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan, Nepalese Health Minister Khaga Raj Adhikari and Thailand Inspector-General of Public Health Dr Suriya Wongkongkathep were present at the signing ceremony.
Speakers at the event said over 147 million people in the South-East Asia region are at risk of contracting this life-threatening disease, mainly in Bangladesh, India and Nepal.
As over 50% of the cases in the three main affected countries occur in areas close to international borders, besides strong national efforts, countries also need close collaboration to control and eliminate this disease.
Kala-azar is debilitating and often fatal if left untreated. It is transmitted by sand flies which breed in moist soil, caves, cracks in mud walls and rodent burrows, they said.
Associated with malnutrition, poor housing and illiteracy, kala-azar prolongs the cycle of poverty as people cannot afford treatment and therefore cannot work.
Elimination of kala-azar means reducing the cases to a level where it is no longer a public health problem. The target is to achieve less than one kala-azar case per 10,000 population annually at district or sub-district level.
“Kala-azar elimination is within our reach and WHO is committed to it”, said Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, WHO regional director for South-East Asia.
“We now have field- friendly diagnostic tools and effective medicines for its treatment. WHO has negotiated for an assured free supply of the treatment drug to endemic countries till end-2016, with a likelihood of this arrangement being extended for another five years.”she added.
The elimination strategy will include access to early diagnosis and treatment, particularly of the most vulnerable populations together with stronger disease and vector surveillance and integrated vector management with emphasis on improvement of the environment, social mobilisation, research and networking.
Elimination of kala-azar will contribute to mitigation of poverty and strengthen health and development efforts in the affected countries, she further added.
