The sand fly that transmits the disease multiplies in the cow dung villagers use liberally to plaster their shanties or as cow dung cakes for fuel. The flies survive on the sap in banana and bamboo groves and the decomposed cow dung heaps. They make their home in the straw thatches of houses.

The disease is characterised by fever, weight loss, swelling of the spleen and liver and leads to cardiovascular complications resulting in death. Early this year, the Bihar government set up the task force on kala-azar headed by Thakur to suggest measures to eradicate the disease by 2010.

Thakur said that continued spraying of insecticides for at least five years in a phased manner and supervised administration of Amphotericin B could eliminate the disease.

"Dengue deaths in Delhi has become a national issue but deaths due to kala-azar in rural Bihar hardly make any news," he lamented. Experts say poor living standards and unhygienic conditions make members of the Mushahar community of Dalits an easy prey to the disease.

Kala-azar, medically known as Visceral Leishmaniasis, is also known as the poor man's disease because it affects the poorest of the poor. Bihar last faced a kala-azar epidemic in 1991 when 250,000 cases were reported. In 2000, the numbers were low but started rising from 2003.

The disease occurs in 62 countries, primarily in the developing world. Around 90 percent of all cases around the world are found in India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sudan and northeast Brazil. Experts say over 60 percent of the cases in India are in Bihar alone.

Source-IANS
LIN /J