Sudanese hit by fly-borne disease
Friday, November 8, 2002 Posted: 4:44 PM EST (2144 GMT)
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NAIROBI, Kenya (Reuters) -- A severe outbreak of the fly-borne parasitic disease Kala Azar is devastating some southern Sudanese communities exhausted by malnutrition and war, medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said Friday.
Kala Azar, or Visceral Leishmaniasis, is transmitted by the tiny sand fly and attacks people weakened by hunger and fatigue. Fatal if untreated, the disease disrupts the liver and spleen, causing fever and severe weight loss and an enlarged spleen.
"It is an overwhelming scene, with so many of the people coming to the clinic every day more dead than alive," an MSF statement quoted MSF Operational Director Jose-Antonio Bastos as saying.
"The state of these patients is appalling. They are being carried on stretchers for days to make it to the clinic. They look pale and thin and are extremely anemic."
The disease is endemic in parts of the Eastern African nations of Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia and usually peaks at this time of year. But the strength of the current outbreak is exceptional and shows a dramatic increase compared to the same seasons in recent years, MSF said.
"While peace talks go on, large parts of southern Sudan are still inaccessible to aid organizations and diseases like Kala Azar continue to claim thousands of lives," MSF said.
Sudan's government and southern rebels are holding peace talks in Kenya to try to end a war that has killed an estimated two million people since it began in 1983.
The rebels in the south, which is mainly animist with a small percentage of Christians and Muslims, have been fighting for more autonomy from the mainly Muslim north.
One MSF official contacted by telephone said he knew of hundreds of Sudanese, almost all of them from communities uprooted by war, who were suffering the disease and who would almost certainly die without medical attention.
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