The Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) says that a door-to-door campaign will be launched in December in the high-risk districts.[break]
"Health officials of the respective districts will visit households to scrutinize suspected cases of kala-azar," Director of Epidemiology and Diseases Control Division (EDCD), Dr GD Thakur said, adding, "Blood samples will be examined on the spot and results will be available within 10 minutes."
He said the government has pledged to bring down kala-azar infection ratio to one in every 10,000 people by 2015 to achieve the Millennium Development Goal (MDG). The current ratio of infection is 1.9 in every 10,000 people.
He said the EDCD is making internal preparations for conducting the campaign. To bring down the existing ratio of kala-azar infection, health officials of the respective districts will be given special training.
The EDCD also says that special awareness program against kala-azar will also be organized before the tests. Schoolchildren, community workers and female community health volunteers will be mobilized for the awareness program.
The special campaign will be carried out in Jhapa, Morang, Sunsari, Saptari, Udayapur, Siraha, Dhanusha, Mahottari, Sarlahi, Rautahat, Bara and Parsa districts. "The volunteers will make people aware about sanitation so as to be safe from kala-azar infection," vector control inspector at EDCD, Kumar Pokharel said.
The EDCD says more than 600 people have been infected with kala-azar till November 2011. In 2010, two people died and 900 others were infected with the disease. Among them 192 were Indian nationals.
Likewise, 935 people, including 202 Indians, were infected in 2009 and five of them died. In 2008, 1,197 people were diagnosed with kala-azar, of which 223 were Indians. Four died among them. In 2007, 1,433 people were diagnosed with the disease. Among them 374 people were Indians. Ten of those infected died.
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