Hamayun Rashid Rathor, Soaib Ali Hassan, Hazrat Bilal, Imtinan Akram Khan, Tallat Anwar Fridi.
A spot survey to investigate an outbreak of cutaneous leishmaniasis at Afghan refugee camp at Khairabad village in Kpk.
Pak J Public Health Jan ;3(2):40-1.

Leishmaniasis is caused by infection of protozoan parasite belongs to genus Leishmania. The protozoa transmitted to human by the bite of infected sand flies of genus phlebotomus in old world. Leishmaniasis is group of diseases the most common form and wide spread in world is CL causing morbidity (leaving scar after healing) in number of people. In Pakistan a number of out breaks of CL have been reported from all the provinces including AJK. However, most recently an outbreak of CL was reported from Khairabad village of district Nowshahera, KPK. All suspected patients visiting Frontier Primary Health Care (FPHC) of Khairabad were confirmed trough laboratory test and then registered for treatment with Sodium Stibogluconate injections provided by United Nation High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). A total of 593 patients were registered out of which the percentage of male was 42.32% and 57.67% were female patients. Most the patients were secondary infected which shows that there is lack of knowledge about disease. So, beside treatment of cases, community should be educated about the vectors, transmission and symptoms of disease. Also there is an urgent need to conduct research for seasonal distribution of vector species in the area and to establish insecticide susceptibility / resistance status of vector species of sand flies, which will help in strategic planning for the control of sand flies and ultimately the disease burden will reduce.

PakMediNet -Pakistan's largest Database of Pakistani Medical Journals - http://www.pakmedinet.com