WANA: An outbreak of cutaneous leishmaniasis has been reported in many villages of South Waziristan trial district with the patients asking the government for injections to prevent complications.

The skin infection has infected 80 people in Sarokai tehsil, mostly women, during the last one week, so injections are needed for them, local doctors told Dawn.

They complained about the unavailability of injections, which, they said, was causing complications. The doctors said leishmaniasis injections weren’t available on the market. They said the disease had affected dozens of people last April and May and had begun to hit the population this year again.

The doctors called for the provision of bed nets to the people to prevent mosquito bites and injections to the patients.

The residents of Sararogha tehsil also complained that the cutaneous leishmaniasis outbreak had begun last month but the local hospitals didn’t have facilities to treat patients.

They demanded of their elected representatives to ensure the supply of medicines to patients.

The doctors said the patients were hard hit by the closure of the Médecins Sans Frontières centre in Bannu due to Covid-19 epidemic and faced more problems.

The MSF, which is also known as Doctors Without Borders, has opened a diagnostic and treatment centre in collaboration with the department of health for leishmaniasis patients at the District Headquarters Hospital, Bannu, which also received patients from the nearby tribal districts.

The centre opened in March this year provided free treatment to around 100 patients a day, which included 50 from North and South Waziristan districts, they said.

The doctors said cutaneous leishmaniasis was a parasitic tropical skin disease transmitted through the bite of a phlebotomine sand-fly and it was endemic in some parts of the country, including tribal districts.

They said the sickness was characterised by lesions on the exposed body part such as face, hands and feet.

The doctors said although lesions didn’t threaten life, they could cause severe physical disfigurement leading to stigma and discrimination and that women were the worst victims.

Representatives of the MSF told Dawn that leishmaniasis services in Peshawar and Bannu had been halted to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

“It is temporary and teams are hoping to become functional soon and start treatment of people there. The Bannu and Peshawar centres have also been receiving people from tribal districts, where the disease is widespread,” he said.

Officials at the World Health Organisation said they had already given 50,000 leishmaniasis injections to the health department and more were in the pipeline but the Covid-19 emergency had blocked supplies.

Published in Dawn, May 17th, 2020