Understand the spread of Visceral leishmaniasis, and gain practical tools to control and combat it in your setting. Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) - also known as kala-azar - is endemic in parts of South Asia, East Africa, Southern Europe and South America. It is fatal if untreated, but the tools do exist to control and even eliminate VL transmission in some of these areas. This online course will you give you an understanding of the biology and epidemiology of VL, then explain practical control and elimination tools that you can use to combat it.
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You’ll look at real-world examples of current VL control and elimination programmes, and find out how to implement and evaluate a programme in your own setting.
What topics will you cover?
This will be the last presentation of this course.
Week 1 - Introduction to VL
- Introduction to the biology, vectors and epidemiology of VL
- Importance of controlling VL
Week 2 - Clinical management of VL: Diagnosis and treatment
- Clinical symptoms and different VL diagnostic tools
- Treatment regimens and anti-leishmanial drugs
Week 3 - Focusing on the vector of VL
- Sand fly biology and behaviour
- Vector-parasite interaction
- Vector control tools
- Emerging challenges in vector control
Week 4 - Tools that complement clinical management and vector control for control and elimination programmes against VL
- Surveillance
- Monitoring and evaluation
- Outbreaks and outbreak management
- Health system strengthening
- Community education
- Elimination & sustainability of control
What will you achieve?
By the end of the course, you'll be able to...
- Describe the cause of visceral leishmaniasis, the way it is transmitted and the basic epidemiology of the disease.
- Identify the symptoms and the tools used for the diagnosis and treatment of visceral leishmaniasis, in order to improve case management.
- Explore the use of vector control methods to prevent bites from infected sand-flies such as using bed-nets and insecticides.
- Reflect on the realities of implementing a VL control programme and the role of community outreach, disease surveillance and control program evaluation.
