Since last December the inhabitants of kaser Touroug, a small village in the outskirts of Errachidia province, have been living under a state of alert because of the endemic Leishmaniasis disease that has (re)invaded their placid town,...
moreSince last December the inhabitants of kaser Touroug, a small village in the outskirts of Errachidia province, have been living under a state of alert because of the endemic Leishmaniasis disease that has (re)invaded their placid town, and caused tens of painful bacterial infections among infants and children. Leishmaniasis is notoriously known as a parasitic disease spread by the bite of certain types of sandflies that breed in arid rural areas like in the oases of the Southeast of Morocco. Infections in human beings cause initially skin lesions and sores, and most of the time leave indelible permanent scarring in different parts of the body, especially on the most visible ones like the face and the hands. While still there is no official statement from the Ministry of Health about the exact number of infected cases, local people of Touroug confirm with an intense sorrow that the number of victims, especially among children is dramatically increasing. This situation, the locals warn, is likely to exacerbate dramatically and spread to neighboring villages because the town's unique infirmary lacks the basic facilities to receive patients, and the delegation of the Ministry in Errachidia have yet neither sent any medical unit to treat the agonized patients, nor taken urgent measures to stop the mushrooming of this disease. According to some local social activists, who have adopted the issue, the endemic effects of the disease have trespassed the borders of Touroug, and more than 170 new cases have been found recently in the villages of Mala'ab and Toulwin in the peripheries of Goulmima. They confirm that the situation is getting uncontrollable and presages of a worrying bleak future to come. As long as the authorities have not dealt seriously with sandflies during this period of biological rest, the region would witness a human tragedy in