( Leishmaniasis a disfiguring disease i...)Afghan Children Fall Victim to a Disfiguring Disease,Health

Leishmaniasis, a disfiguring disease, is adding to the woes of the war-torn Afghanistan. It is caused by a parasite transmitted by a tiny sandfly that can lead to severe scarring, often on the face. Clinics crowded with children with sores in the Afghan capital, Kabul.

The most common form of the disease is not fatal but it causes untold misery. Victims with scarring on their faces are stigmatized: children are excluded at school and girls often won't be able to find husbands.

Long-neglected by the rich world, the disease is attracting a bit more attention in the West, if not more funds.

Leishmaniasis isn't a priority for the government and its aid donors, grappling with shocking rates of infant mortality, tuberculosis, malaria and trauma.

Some foreign troops in Afghanistan and Iraq have also been bitten by the sandflies and have developed the disease. NATO saw about 150 cases in Afghanistan in 2005 and about 12 last year, a force spokeswoman said.

NATO camps have been fortified to try to stop the sandflies and soldiers are warned to keep sleeves rolled down, to use insect repellant and to watch for bites.

But it's Afghanistan's poor who are most vulnerable.

Kabul, battered and neglected for years, has the world's worst outbreak of leishmaniasis, health experts say.

"It's out of control, absolutely out of control," said Reto Steiner, a medic with the German Medical Service which helps run the Kabul clinic.

"You won't control it until the sanitation has recovered."

The deep ulcers caused by the parasites will heal if left untreated, but that invariably involves disfigurement and can take many months. That has given rise to one of the diseases many nicknames: saldana, or one-year sore.

Though present in all Afghan cities, it is in Kabul's crowded neighborhoods that the disease has exploded and spread to hundreds of thousands of people.


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