Syria: Leishmaniasis creating an urgent situation

[Ronan Kelly]

?Aleppo button? disease afflicts war-torn city

By Agence France-Presse
Saturday, March 30, 2013 10:15 EDT

The latest affliction to hit weary residents of Aleppo is written on their faces. Some call it the ?Aleppo button?, a welt caused by leishmaniasis, an illness that is sweeping the Syrian city.

Transmitted by flies, the parasitic disease arrived along with the thousands of Syrians displaced from their homes by fighting.

Mohamed, 11, first saw the unsightly welts caused by the disease appear on his face three months ago, and they keep growing.


?It?s a fly that comes from pomegranates, it bites you and you catch the Aleppo button,? he says.

The welts cover his nose and have cropped up around his mouth. While painless, they could leave scars that last for life. His mother, sister and cousins have also contracted the same infection.

The disease, which is not fatal but weakens the immune system, was largely confined to the countryside of Aleppo province until the civil war.
...

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/03/30/aleppo-button-disease-afflicts-war-torn-city/

[Shiloh]

Re: Syria: Leishmaniasis creating an urgent situation

Source: http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/1175377

UOSSM: The Outbreak of Leishmania in Northern Syria is an Urgent Regional Public Health Crisis That Necessitates Immediate Treatment & Preventive Plan
>PRWEB.COM Newswire

washington, DC (PRWEB) April 09, 2013

UOSSM calls on the World Health organization (WHO) and the international medical agencies to assist the local health care providers and public health centers inside Syria and on the Turkish border in treating the escalating number of leishmania in Northern Syria, and to support the local health centers in their efforts to control the spread of the disease. According to Today?s Zaman,?Approximately 100,000 people have been infected with the leishmaniasis in the past two years after civil war broke out in Syria, compared with before the conflict when the number of cases in Syria had been reduced to 3,000-4,000.?

The increase in the number of cases of Leishmania in Turkey, impose an additional dimension to the crisis, making the outbreak on the verge of being regional public health crisis ?The increase in the number of patients suffering from the disease is alarming not only for Syria but for Turkey as well since leishmaniasis has also reached Turkey...?

[Shiloh]

Re: Syria: Leishmaniasis creating an urgent situation

Source: http://www.worldbulletin.net/?aType=...ticleID=111582

Threat of Leishmaniasis in Syria: report
"Syria has been teetering on a leishmaniasis outbreak for a while" Hotez, a professor of molecular virology and microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine said.

World Bulletin / News Desk

Medical supplies for Syrians suffering from leishmaniasis both inside and outside the country come from a patchwork of local aid organizations, private donors, and international aid organizations like the WHO and UNHCR -- all of which struggle to get medicine to those in Syria who are in need, reported Erin Banco via Foreign Policy.

The lack of medical supplies and preventive spraying isn't the only obstacle to containing leishmaniasis. Poor education about what causes the Aleppo boil -- and how to treat it -- means that many children continue to suffer unnecessary pain and disfigurement...