On the Sudanese-Ethiopian border and in an isolated village called Bandgio in the state of Gedaref, leishmaniasis of zebra known as “calamar” in children, causing increasing deaths, is out of the lack of basic medical care.
The episode of the program “IMRAN 5” followed on 03/15/2025, the suffering of residents of this village, which has become an objective of the disease, because the people confirmed that the sandy fly of the parasite lives largely in the region, which makes the injury almost inevitable in the light of the lack of appropriate treatment.
One of the residents told his tragic story by losing 4 of his children due to a disease, indicating that the symptoms begin with a severe fever, before worsening quickly and often by death.
He added that the lack of awareness and the weakness of medical capacities make the question more complicated, because the wounded are forced to travel long distances at the Gedaref hospital in the middle of robust roads, and it is often the time to save their lives.
During the visit to the village, the program examined painful scenes from families who lost their children because of the Calisar, while others faced the same fate without hope of obtaining close treatment.
One of the doctors explained that this disease attacks the spleen, the liver and the immune system and causes an enlargement of the internal organs and the number of blood cells is low, which makes infected vulnerable to deadly complications.
The crisis has not been limited to the same disease, but was exacerbated by the lack of basic health care, as there is no health unit equipped in the village or permanent medical staff, which makes parents rely on primitive treatments or expect rare health campaigns.
When one of the residents was questioned at the nearest hospital, he referred to a trip that takes hours in the midst of earth roads that can differentiate between life and death for patients.
The initiative of the Ministry of Health
Faced with this tragedy, a team from the Ministry of Health has launched a spray campaign to combat sand flies, with the aim of limiting the spread of the disease, and the campaign included the spraying of houses and residential areas with special pesticides targeting the places of reproduction of the fly, in addition to providing the treatments available to patients.
One of the campaign officials said these efforts were a first step towards reducing infection rates, but it is not enough without improving health capacities in the region.
The same official called on the authorities concerned and the humanitarian organizations to intervene urgently to establish a health center equipped with the necessary medicines and equipment, considering that the continuation of the current situation means more death.
Despite the tragedy, people have not lost hope because they received the health team with great hospitality, clinging to any glimmer of hope that could save their children from inevitable fate.
While the program documented the campaign scenes, one of the children with “Al -kalazar” appeared smiling despite his pain, which reflects the hardness of the residents of the village in the face of difficult challenges.
The question remains as to the extent of these limited efforts to save the lives of children, in the light of the epidemic of the disease and the absence of a healthy structure capable of facing it, while the hope of the villagers remains suspended by a wider intervention which provides them and their proverbs a fundamental right in life, which is the treatment before it is too late.