Campaign for control of calazar in affected areas
In Hilihang Rural Municipality of Panchthar, 5 citizens have been confirmed to be infected in Baisakh. According to the health branch of the rural municipality, 1 person in ward number 4 and 2 persons each in 5 and 7 have been confirmed to have kala-azar.
Chandra Ghimire, Head of the Health Branch of Hilihang, informed that 4 people here had been diagnosed with kalazar last year. According to health workers, Kalajar is caused by the bite of sand fly. Until recently, this problem was limited only to Terai districts, but recently it has spread to hilly and Himalayan districts.
The sand fly, which prefers warm places, lives in houses covered with dung, walls of huts and soil dug by rats. The kala-azar is spread by biting an infected person and also by biting a healthy person.
Symptoms such as fever for more than two weeks, swelling of the body, and lack of blood are seen during the kala-azar.
After the confirmation of kalazar among citizens, a team including experts from the Epidemiology and Disease Control Division and the District Health Office has started a campaign to control kalazar in the affected areas. The team led by Gokarn Dahal, head of the insect disease control department of the
division, has started an interaction program with locals, civic leaders and public representatives by spraying insecticides to kill fleas around 100 meters from the affected houses where patients were found. The government is aiming to control Kalazar from Nepal by 2026. To reach the target, not even one citizen of the country should be infected with 10 thousand population. This standard is applicable in every district Dahal says.
According to Dahal, the government is conducting a nationwide campaign to control Kalajar. From spraying insecticides in the affected areas of Kalazar, free treatment and distribution of medicine to infected patients, along with transport expenses, Rs.
