Around 290 cases in Bani Walid are diagnosed with Leishmaniasis disease, and no medicines are available in the northwestern town to treat them, said manager of the Bani Walid Health Center Aymen Hawadi on Tuesday.
Hawadi called upon the Ministry of Health of the Government of the National Accord (GNA) and the National Communicable Disease Control Centre to supply the town with the needed medicines to stop the increasing number of cases.
Leishmaniasis has prevailed in most regions in Libya in the recent period due to poor infrastructure, member of the Medical Convoys Committee at the Ministry of Health Mohamed Sassi said on Saturday.
Sassi added that Leishmaniasis is a parasitic disease transmitted across sandy regions through the bite of infected female sandflies.
The disease is associated with streets contaminated with sewage, the spread of trash, crumbling buildings and malnutrition across Libya, he said, adding that it is also linked to the climate changes.
He called upon officials to supply the needed drugs, particularly that many regions suffer from shortage of medicine.
Leishmaniasis has been a major public health problem in Libya since the 1970s, but the number of cases has progressively decreased because of the implementation of control activities. However, officials have neglected fighting it in the recent years due to armed conflicts.
There are three main forms of leishmaniases: visceral, the most serious form of the disease; cutaneous; and mucocutaneous.
“Cutaneous Leishmaniasis has been reported in rural villages in the northwest, in the semi arid area extending from Tripoli to the Tunisian border, and from the coast to the plateau of Jebel Nefusa. Visceral Leishmaniasis has been reported from the Benghazi region and the northeastern coastal areas,” according to the International Association for Medical Assistance to Travellers (IAMAT).
Visceral leishmaniasis is fatal if left untreated in over 95 percent of the cases, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
