WhileBiharhas over 67% ofkala-azar casesin the country, but all the blocks of state achieved the target of its elimination in 2022, for the first time ever. However, in order to be declared kala-azar free, the state has to maintain this target for three consecutive years.
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation country lead (neglected tropical diseases),Bhupendra Tripathi, praised the states efforts in achieving this target. Explaining the concept behind becoming kala-azar free, Tripathi said if any block has less than one case per 10,000 of its Population, then it is said to have achieved the elimination target. However, validation is done after three years.
In Bihar, Isuapur in Saran and Goriakothi in Siwan were the two blocks in the category of endemic. However, by the end of 2022, both managed to reduce the number of kala-azar cases as per the standard set.
Even though Bihar has managed to reduce the numbers and come out of the category of endemic, it has the highest cases of kala-azar as well as the deaths due to it in the country.
As per the data shared by the National Centre for Vector-borne Diseases Control, there were 547 cases of kala-azar in Bihar till December 2022, out of total 810 cases across the country. Also, out of total 39 kala-azar deaths reported in 2022, maximum 26 were in Bihar.
But, states own journey shows tremendous improvement. For instance, it had 7,615 cases in 2014, which came down to 3424 in 2018 and to 547 in 2022.