Kala Azar Disease

• Bihar battles Kala Azar, over 6000 cases reported

  It has been over one week and five-year-old Pinki has had high fever, diarrhoea and skin rashes - all symptoms of Kala Azar, the second largest parasitic killer after malaria in the world. Like her, 62 others are also being treated at the government medical college and hospital in Bihar. Till March this year, a phenomenal 6302 cases were reported a...

• Effective oral treatment for kala azar

  According to a recent Indian study, a drug originally used to treat cancer has proved to be an easy and effective way to fight kala azar or visceral leishmaniasis, a parasitic disease that infects approximately 5,00,000 people in 88 countries each year around the globe. In India, the country hardest hit by visceral leishmaniasis, up to 60% of peopl...

• Effective oral treatment for kala azar

  According to a recent study, a drug originally designed to treat cancer appears to be an easy and effective way to fight black fever (kala azar) or visceral leishmaniasis, a parasitic disease that infects hundreds of thousands of people each year around the globe.

• Need to develop drugs for the most neglected diseases

  There is a chronic lack of effective, affordable, easy-to-use medications for neglected diseases. Drug research and development (R&D) for tropical diseases is at a virtual standstill. Therefore there is a need to stimulate R&D activities for the neglected diseases prevalent in the developing world.

• First oral drug for Kala azar

  India licenses the first oral drug called Miltefosine for visceral leishmaniasis (kala azar). It is the first oral drug, which has proved to be highly effective and safe and is likely to cost less. This drug could save the lives of thousands of people who die from the disease every year.