KARAK: A skin disease caused by sand fly has broken out in parts of Karak district, affecting over 400 people.

The issue came to fore here on Saturday when people of Showanki, Kurd Sharif, Kurd Payan and other adjacent localities held a protest demonstration against lack of medicines in the local hospitals to treat leishmaniasis.

The people of different localities led by former Palosa Sar union council nazim Ikhtiar Rehman Khattak gathered at Kurd and blocked the main Kurd-Mianwali road briefly to record their protest. They claimed that the disease had so far affected around 447 people.

The elders demanded of the health department to carry out fumigation in the area and provide free medicines and mosquito nets to the people. They said over 239 patients, particularly women and children, were hospitalised in Mianwali district for treatment as there was no health facility in their area.

They said 137 cases were recorded in April and 69 cases so far in the current month. The protesters said due to ignorance of the people regarding the disease many cases had become chronic. The elders demanded of the health department to take emergency steps and send special teams of doctors and medicines to the remote areas to provide treatment facilities to the affected people.