01770nas a2200145   4500000000100000008004100001260003800042100001400080700001100094245012100105300001000226520134500236022002501581020001801606       2023                            d  bSpringer International Publishing1 aPradhan B1 aKuna B00aClimate Change and Health Impacts on Vulnerable Communities: The Case of Kala-Azar (Visceral Leishmaniasis) in Nepal  a33-483 a<p>Leishmaniasis continues to pose a major public health problem in developing countries, including Nepal. It is climate sensitive. Change in temperature, rainfall and humidity can have its enormous effect on human health, including the burden and distribution of many infectious vector borne diseases such as Kala-azar (<em>Visceral Leishmaniasis</em>). Such a change in climate can have a profound effect on the developmental cycle of&nbsp;<em>Leishmania promastigotes</em>&nbsp;in sandflies, allowing transmission of the parasite in areas not previously endemic for the disease. Leishmaniasis is also a disease of the poor, occurring mostly in remote rural villages and affecting mostly marginal communities with poor housing and little or no access to healthcare facilities. Here, we discuss Kala-azar—the vector borne disease in terms of history of origin, growth and distribution, and impacts on poor and marginal people and places in Nepal. The study found that there is increasing of Kala-azar disease cases not only in warmer districts of Tarai but also in adjoining cool hill districts due to warm climate. This has affected the health of poor people due to their less adaptative capacity to climate change. Particularly the poor people are marginalized due to lack of road accessibility and limited healthcare facilities.</p>
  a2367-0002, 2367-0010  a9783031213243