“When Sishu Kumari started working as a rural health worker in 2008, there were 33,000 cases of kala-azar, or black fever, in India.

Two years later, India would miss its first target deadline to eliminate the deadly infection. The future seemed bleak.

But the South Asian country has since made rapid progress in tackling the tropical disease, with the number of cases dropping to 520 last year, according to government data.

Now on January 30, the World Health Organization’s Neglected Tropical Disease Day, India is on the verge of eliminating kala-azar.”

From DW.