The State health department has swung into action following discovery of a patient of Kala- Azar in Dehradun. On Wednesday the doctors of the associated hospital of Government Doon Medical College (GDMC) here reported that one person, a resident of Pauri is suffering from Kala Azar.
On Thursday an alarmed department sprang into action as the matter was reported in newspapers.
When contacted the Director General (DG) of health services Dr D S Rawat told The Pioneer that the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of Pauri was informed about the case and asked to take necessary action.
He informed that district vector borne diseases officer of Pauri has been directed to visit the area where this patient resides with his team. This team would examine the presence of Philbotomus (Sand fly) in the area and extent of infection in the population.
The DG health said that though the disease occurs rarely in Uttarakhand patients have been reported in past in the State.
The heath department officials admit that detection of a patient indicate that the vector and the causative agent of the disease is present in the State.
The district vector Borne diseases officer of Dehradun, Jagdish Prasad Bahuguna said that one patient of the disease was reported from Vikanagar area in 2014. This patient was a migrant labour from Bihar.
Kala Azar is a dreaded parasitic disease of tropical areas caused by protozoan lieshmania donovani . The vector of the protozoan parasite is sand fly.
In India the disease is reported from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Orissa, Jharkhand and Assam. The symptoms of the disease are intermittent or remittent fever, loss of appetite and acute weight loss.
Enlargement of spleen is one of a characteristic feature of the disease accompanied by infection into liver and bone marrow. If untreated the disease becomes fatal.