Neglected killer: kala-azar disease surges in Kenya

Kala-azar survivor Harada Hussein Abdirahman sits in her compound in a village adjacent to one of the stone quarry areas in the hills outside Mandera town, where the highest infection rates of the parasitic disease Kala-Azar have been recorded, in Mandera, on January 22, 2026. [AFP]

For nearly a year, repeated misdiagnoses of the deadly kala-azar disease left 60-year-old Harada Hussein Abdirahman's health deteriorating, as an outbreak in Kenya's arid regions claimed a record number of lives.

Kala-azar is spread by sandflies and is one of the most dangerous neglected tropical diseases, with a fatality rate of 95 percent if untreated, causing fever, weight loss, and enlargement of the spleen and liver.