Flyborne Kala-Azar, Fatal If Untreated, On Brink Of Becoming Endemic In Kenya - Thanks In Part To Destruction Of USAID

Longorot Epuu’s 8-year-old niece, his namesake, was sick. Epuu quickly recognized the signs of kala-azar, the “black fever,” while visiting his brother’s family in a neighboring village in Kenya’s vast, arid Turkana region in September of last year. The younger Longorot had a high fever and a swollen stomach, and she was very weak. Also known as visceral leishmaniasis, kala-azar is caused by female sandfly bites and predominantly impacts children under the age of 15. But Epuu didn’t know that when left untreated, the disease attacks vital organs and is fatal in 95 percent of cases.

Still, he could tell something was very wrong. He picked up his niece and drove her on his motorbike to the local hospital 6 miles away. On the sixth day of her stay, she died. “We were shocked and completely shaken,” Epuu said. “It was just too late.” Currently, East Africa accounts for over 70 percent of the world’s estimated 50,000 to 90,000 annual kala-azar cases — and in Kenya, the disease is becoming endemic in more and more areas, in part due to climate change. Rising temperatures and erratic rainfall, including dramatic swings between severe droughts and flash floods, have supercharged the breeding of infected sandflies and the spread of kala-azar in the region.

Five million people are at risk of kala-azar in Kenya, which has set a goal of eliminating the disease by 2030. Academics, doctors, and field-workers said that target is overly ambitious, in part because U.S. President Donald Trump unilaterally cut most international aid to countries like Kenya and shuttered the United States Agency for International Development, or USAID, which funded many of the community health workers who manage kala-azar cases and raise awareness on the ground. Between extreme weather and the funding cuts, Turkana is losing many of the resources it needs to address kala-azar right as it’s becoming more common.

“The cuts are really tragic,” said James Ekamais, the coordinator for kala-azar and other so-called neglected tropical diseases for Turkana County. “Early detection and the management of patients is now compromised. We will lose them. We anticipate the death rate going up.”

EDIT

https://grist.org/health/kala-azar-kenya-usaid/