Jessore: Doctors have diagnosed a woman in Sadar upazila with ‘kala-azar’, 69 years after the disease was last detected in the district, reports UNB.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), ‘kala-azar’ is the popular name for ‘visceral leishmaniasis’ that is characterized by irregular bouts of fever, substantial weight loss, swelling of the spleen and liver, and anemia.
The patient was identified as Taslima Khatun, 35, wife of Nazrul Islam, a rickshaw puller of Nurpur area of Sadar upazila.
Taslima has been undergoing treatment at 250-Bed General Hospital from Wednesday last.
Nazrul Islam said Taslima, a mother of three, had suffered from jaundice six or seven month ago. Since then she had been suffering from fever.
As her fever could not be cured, doctors carried out various tests on her and concluded that she was in fact infected by ‘kala-azar’.
Jessore Civil Surgeon Abul Fazal said Taslima has been undergoing treatment after she was diagnosed to be a ‘kala-azar’ patient.
Measures have been taken for her treatment under the existing ‘kala-azar’ elimination programme of the government, he said.
The civil surgeon also noted that the last patient of ‘kala-azar’ before Taslima was recoded in the district in 1947.
There had been reports of ‘kala-azar’ infected patients in 46 districts of the country, mostly in Mymensingh, Pabna, Tangail, Gazipur, Manikganj, and Jamalpur districts.
Medicine specialist Dr Gotam Kumar Acharjaya said the ‘kala-azar’ is transmitted by the bite of a type of shade fly, adding “we have suggested Taslima to get admitted to hospital after we were sure about the kala-azar disease in her on Wednesday.”