Afganistan: Disfiguring tropical disease WHO says

World Health Organization officials said Friday an outbreak of a tropical disease caused by sand fly bites that leaves disfiguring skin sores has hit Afghanistan, with tens of thousands of people infected.

The disease known as leishmaniasis is caused by protozoan parasites belonging to the genus Leishmania. The parasites are transmitted by the bite of a tiny – only 2–3 mm long – insect vector, the phlebotomine sandfly.

Peter Graaff, WHO representative to Afghanistan, told The Associated Press on Friday that the stigma and shame attached to the disfiguring disease results in underreporting, and the number of infected people is likely much higher.

In Kabul - described by the WHO as "the world capital of cutaneous leishmaniasis" — the number of cases jumped from an estimated 17,000 a year in the early 2000s to 65,000 in 2009. The sand flies proliferate from June to September 2010, due of unsanitary conditions An outbreak has occurred in a small village in western Herat province's Kohsan district with 63 people infected since August, Graaff said. The cause of the outbreak was unknown and a WHO team has been dispatched to investigate.