PESHAWAR, Dec 15: Leishmeniases — a skin disease — has attained  endemic proportions in the Lower Kurram  Agency, Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), needing immediate action by the provincial health department and the World Health Organization (WHO), official sources said here on Saturday.

Some 1, cases have been reported in Agency where the provincial health department recently carried out a house-to-house survey with financial support by the WHO.

Spread by stinking desert fly, leishmenianses causes scars on the patient’s face, hands, feet and other parts of the body which sometimes also results in death if attains serious proportions.

The  disease,  according to sources, has  great  social implications, specially for females.

“It is quite rampant in Lower Kurram Agency where there would be hardly any house which would not have a leishmeniases affected  patient,” said a senior officer of  the  provincial health department.

The cause of endemic has been attributed to Afghan refugee population present in large number there.

The health department authorities who have been involved in carrying out the survey, told this scribe that presence of leishmeniases was, apparently, of serious concern for the health department and the WHO for not only that it required expensive treatment, all the more, the medicines that could be effective to counter the disease were not available in Pakistan.

The sources said the drugs needed to counter the disease, were not registered in Pakistan. “We have sought support of the WHO for importing  anti- leishmeniases drugs to treat over 1,000 patients reported in the Agency,” official sources added.

Most probably, the WHO was trying to get the medicines from the neighbouring Iran.

The survey revealed that in nine big villages and their catchment areas seven to eight members in a single house were affected by the disease.

About 100,000 persons were contacted during the survey which also covered some parts of the Upper Kurram Agency where, according to sources, the disease appeared to be non-existent.

The WHO, the sources said, would shortly be requested to carry out similar survey in the Afghan refugee camps situated in several parts of the Lower Kurram Agency.

The health department would shortly move the WHO for carrying out survey in Afghan refugee camps situated in the Agency where a large number of Afghan displaced persons have recently arrived.

“The war-ravaged country’s areas bordering Pakistan have a large number of leishmeniases cases hence it is imperatively needed that effective measures should be taken to counter the disease in the refugees,” according to official sources.

International relief agencies providing health care facilities in the refugee camps also reported large number of patients with this disease.