LARKANA, Jan 26: A three-member Japanese team of medical experts completed its initial study regarding the spread of a skin disease, leishmaniasis, in Larkana district and will re-visit the affected areas in September.

The team, comprising Prof Shigeo Nonaka (dermatologist), Prof Yoshihisa Hasiguchi (parasitologist) and Prof Kenkatakura (microbiologist), belong to different Japanese universities.

Talking to this correspondent here on Sunday, they said that the Japan government would launch a four-year project to combat the skin disease, which had severely affected the rural areas of the district.

The team, they said, had also conducted studies and research on this skin disease in Ecuador, South America.

They said that though it was difficult to comment on the variety of the disease, prevailing in Sindh, the primary studies showed it to be leishmaniasis major.—Correspondent