European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

VECTOR ECOLOGY IN ENDEMIC AND NONENDEMIC AREAS OF KALA-AZAR IN BIHAR AND JHARKHAND STATES OF INDIA

Diwakar Singh Dinesh*, Prashant Kumar, Annadurai Jeya Kumar, Maneesh Kumar, Roshan Kamal Topno, Pradeep Das

ABSTRACT

Visceral Leishmaniasis is a major health problem of Bihar, India. It is under elimination mode. However, the transmission of the disease is dependent on the ecological and environmental conditions of the locality. The pres-ence of critical density of sandfly vector in the locality is also a major factor in the transmission of the disease. Di-versity in the population of sand flies in endemic and nonendemic areas of Jharkhand and Bihar in India was corre-lated with the respective ecological and environmental conditions. The Man Hour Density (MHD) of the Kala-azar vector; Phlebotomus argentipes was found 5.2 and 1.8 in non endemic area of Jharkhand and endemic region of Bihar respectively over a year 2008-09. The soil was found red in non endemic areas of Jharkhand whereas alluvial soil was present in Kala-azar endemic areas of Bihar. Sand flies were found scattered in dwellings distributed in whole areas in endemic region of Bihar but were confined in particular dark mud house having cattle sharing the room of human dwelling in Jharkhand. All factors responsible for the transmission of the disease like the presence of infected host, ability of vector in the region to pick up parasite, proper development of parasite in the gut of vec-tor and its transmission in fresh host under suitable environmental conditions were present in endemic zone of Ka-la-azar in Bihar but only vector density was found than other factors including absence of source of parasite in Jharkhand. The findings will be helpful in distinguishing endemic and nonendemic regions of Kala-azar.

Keywords: Visceral Leishmaniasis is a major health problem of Bihar, India. It is under elimination mode. However, the transmission of the disease is dependent on the ecological and environmental conditions of the locality. The pres-ence of critical density of sand