E-Paper
New, improved drug for Kala-azar next year
The government plans to introduce a new, improved drug to treat Kala-azar (Visceral Leishmaniasis) under the National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme next year because the disease-causing parasite has developed resistance to the drug currently being used.
The government plans to introduce a new, improved drug to treat Kala-azar (Visceral Leishmaniasis) under the National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme next year because the disease-causing parasite has developed resistance to the drug currently being used.
Kala-azar is a fatal disease caused by the parasite protozoa Leishmania, which infects humans through the bite of the female sand fly. The disease lowers immunity, causes persistent fever, anaemia, liver and spleen enlargement. If left untreated, it can kill.
The disease is endemic in rural Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and eastern Uttar Pradesh where the sand fly thrives in cracks and crevices of mud plastered houses, cow-dung heaps and rat burrows.
About 165 million people are at risk in India, which has around 20,000 reported cases and 200 reported deaths each year. The estimated cases are higher.
“Sodium StiboGluconate (SSG) is an old drug and resistance has developed against it. The alternatives being considered are Miltefosine and Amphotericin B, which are prescribed and have proved effective in drug-resistant cases for Visceral Leishmaniasis. Their results will be compared with Paramomycin (an injectable),” said Vishwa Mohan Katoch, secretary, department of health research, Union ministry of health and family welfare.
The Union health ministry has set up an Expert Group to review new drugs and recommend the ones that are most effective.
“The group will submit its recommendations by mid next year (the drug to be adopted for treating Kala-azar),” said Katoch.
