WHO provides Leishmania disease medicine to Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: The World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday handed over medicines to control and treat Leishmania disease, ARY News reported.

The WHO handed over the medicines in a ceremony at the Ministry of National Health in Islamabad, also attended by Prime Minister’s Assistant for National Health Dr. Zafar Mirza and the head of WHO in Pakistan.

Dr. Zafar Mirza speaking on the occasion said that the WHO has provided 30,000 doses of the injection to help treatment of Leishmania disease.

Dr. Mirza thanked the WHO for providing the medicine adding that the world health body will provide another 35,000 doses of the medicine.

Leishmania is a skin disease commonly transmitted from humans through sandfly. The disease is widespread in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and some parts of Punjab.

Cutaneous leishmaniasis cases have surged in the country’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province since the end of 2018. The health authorities reported about 28,000 cases since November 2018, most of them from merged districts previously known as the Federally Administrated Tribal Areas.

Cutaneous leishmaniasis is a skin infection caused by a parasite transmitted by the bite of a sandfly. Although not life threatening, it can cause severe stigma and psychological trauma. People with lesions and scars are often victimised and excluded from public life.