PESHAWAR, July 26: The provincial health department has failed to register anti-leishmaniasis drugs in the medical coordination committee’s list despite repeated requests by the World Health Organization, official sources told Dawn on Saturday.

“Despite high prevalence of the disease in the province, we have no programme in place and it could result into an epidemic,” said the sources.

In view of the rapid spread of the ailment in the settled parts of the province, the world health agency on several occasions has asked the provincial health department to include the anti-leishmaniasis drugs in the medical coordination committee (MCC) list so that people in the far-flung areas could be provided treatment at the state-run health facilities free of cost.

More cases were being reported from the areas bordering Afghanistan such as Chitral and South Waziristan.

“The main problem is that people in these areas are illiterate and do not know anything about the precautionary measures to protect themselves against the disease,” said a health official.

Leishmaniasis produces skin lesions mainly on the face, arms and legs. Although this form is often self-healing, it can create serious disability and permanent scars on the body. Children, especially girls in the age of 1-5 years, are the common victims.

The high prevalence of the disease in the Frontier province is evident from the letters addressed to the provincial directorate-general of health services by executive district officers (EDOs) health from Dir, Chitral, Dera Ismail Khan, Buner, Kohat, Hangu, Mardan, Nowshera and Malakand, wherein help had been sought from the government to provide treatment facilities to the affected people.

“The problem of the EDOs is that they cannot not purchase drugs because these are not included in the MCC list,” said the official.

According to him, earlier the anti-leishmaniasis drugs were being smuggled from Iran, but now a Lahore-based firm had manufactured them and these were available in the market. However, most of the people were unable to purchase these drugs.

The disease was 100 per cent curable, but the treatment should be provided immediately so that it could not become epidemic, like in the Kurram Agency where the WHO had so far treated 2,000 patients.

Likewise, district Dir had already experienced the epidemic of leishmaniasis in 1999, Sindh in 2001 and the recent outbreak in Balochistan are the cases that should serve as an eye-opener for the health planners, said a Peshawar-based WHO official.

The official said the average cost of leishmaniasis drug was Rs400. He said the only way to curb the spread of the disease was to educate the people about the disease and provide them with bed nets on subsidised rates to protect them against sand-flies. He also suggested spray of insecticides in certain areas.

An official of the health department said a meeting with the WHO officials would be held in a couple of days to chalk out an strategy to provide treatment to the people in the affected areas of the province.