Double infection by kalaazar and HIV have made treatment difficult in the country
With highlands in Ethiopia recording deficient rainfall year after year, farmers are migrating to lowlands near the Sudan border and becoming vulnerable to diseases, according to a report by Reuters.
According to meteorologists quoted in the report, peak season rainfall in the highlands has dropped from 1,059 mm to 317 mm in the last few years. This forces an estimated 300,000 Ethiopian farmers to shift to cash crop plantations and become vulnerable to diseases prevalent in the region.
Of these, the most prevalent is kalaazar, a parasitic disease caused by bites of the sandfly, says the report.
"It is a kalaazar endemic area," Ermias Diro, a researcher at the University of Gondar's clinic, is quoted as saying in the Reuters report. "A lot of people travel there to look for work, and in the process, they get bitten by the sandfly."
Global warming is seen to affect the distribution and growth of vectors like the sandfly, according to another expert quoted in this report.Problems associated with treating kalaazar worsen when these farmers contract HIV. Being away from family leads them to indulge in risky sexual behaviour.
Disease treatment faces its own set of challenges in this region. Villages are located far from treatment centres, water is scarce and electricity supply is deficient, leading to a lack of cold storage required for diagnostics.
An ill wind? Climate change, migration, and health
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