London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and KalaCORE launch free online course on the Control and Elimination of Visceral Leishmaniasis

London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and KalaCORE are launching a free online course on the Control and Elimination of Visceral Leishmaniasis.

By the end of the four-week course, learners will understand how visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is transmitted and will have gained practical insights into effective management of diagnosis and treatment, and towards controlling the disease. It has been designed to inform people who are directly involved with the control of VL and will be relevant to health workers and those with an interest in the control and elimination of this neglected tropical disease.

Visceral leishmaniasis, also known as kala-azar, is an infectious disease found in many parts of South Asia and East Africa, Southern Europe and South America. It is transmitted through bites from infected sand flies and is the second-largest parasitic killer after malaria. It is almost always fatal if untreated, but the tools do exist to control and even eliminate the disease as a public health problem in some endemic regions.

The course is provided through the online learning platform, FutureLearn, and has been developed by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, in collaboration with KalaCORE, a UK aid-funded programme tackling VL in South Asia and East Africa.

It provides a unique opportunity to learn about the tools needed for an effective VL control programme from experts delivering current control and elimination programmes in South Asia and East Africa. Learners will receive access to practical tools and insight into understanding the requirements and complexities of such programmes.

The course launches on Monday 3 September. Register your free place now by visiting:

https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/visceral-leishmaniasis

KalaCORE is a partnership to support the control and elimination of visceral leishmaniasis in six countries, three in Asia (India, Nepal and Bangladesh) and three in Africa (Ethiopia, Sudan and South Sudan). The programme is funded with UK aid from the UK government. http://www.kalacore.org/

The KalaCORE consortium has been formed from four organisations: Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi), the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), and Mott MacDonald, with close collaboration from the World Health Organisation (WHO).

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