Kala Azar (Leishmaniasis)

Hear about kala azar from an expert in the disease, MSF health advisor Kurt Ritmeijer.

Featured Links

• There are few effective drugs to treat kala azar. Those that are available are mostly not affordable for people in poorer countries. Without treatment, nine out of ten patients will die. Find out more.

• MSF nurse Jane Boggini shares her experience of treating people for kala azar in South Sudan.

• December 2011: MSF research highlights the need for treatment for kala azar in HIV patients in East Africa.

Leishmaniasis, or kala azar, is a parasitic disease endemic in 88 countries and affecting over 12 million people. 
It principally affects poor, remote communities where there is limited access to healthcare and affordable drugs. Leishmaniasis often occurs as an epidemic, especially when previously unexposed populations are forced by war and famine to move into endemic areas. The parasite is transmitted to humans by biting sand flies.

In the most severe form of the disease the parasite attacks the visceral organs such as the liver and spleen. It also attacks the immune system and, without treatment, kala azar is fatal in almost 100% of cases. Over 90 percent of visceral leishmaniasis cases occur in five countries: Bangladesh, Brazil, India, Nepal and Sudan.

Diagnostic tests for leishmaniasis are invasive and potentially dangerous, and require lab facilities and specialists not readily available in resource-poor settings. With proper treatment, approximately 92 percent of people infected can be cured. But many of the available drugs have drawbacks, including the length of treatment (30 days), toxicity and cost. Drug resistance is also a problem, especially in India where as many as 65% of patients are infected with resistant Leishmania.

Since 1989 MSF has treated around 80,000 patients with kala azar. MSF is also campaigning for more research into suitable diagnostic techniques and affordable drugs to treat this neglected disease.

 

In the field, MSF doctors are constantly frustrated by the lack of adequate medical tools. In response, Médecins Sans Frontières set up the MSF Access Campaign in 1999 to improve access to existing medical tools and to stimulate the development of urgently needed better tools. MSF Access Campaign. 

 

              

MSF is well known for its humanitarian medical work, but it has also produced important research based on its field experience with vulnerable populations. This website archives MSF's scientific articles and makes them available free, with full text, and in an easily searchable format. MSF Field Research website.

 

 

For 40 years, MSF has directly witnessed the human cost of the lack of drugs for neglected diseases and has raised its voice against this inequity. In 2003, seven organisations from around the world joined forces to establish DNDi, Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative.