Contributing+Factors+-+Leishmaniasis

Associated with War
 * The many wars in Afghanistan have destroyed much of the weakly established infrastructure
 * Because of the war there is no longer easy access to health care, in fact for many patients a doctor may be many miles away
 * The wars caused an influx of many refugees which was problematic because then there was an emergence of tent cities where there is a very high population density meaning that sanitation is very hard to control and not many people have access to food and clean water. Apart from the problems refugees posed from an organizational perspective, it also meant that people with less established immunity to Leishmaniasis were displaced to places where the disease was thriving.
 * The war caused the priorities of the country and the world away from treating non-threatening diseases such as Leishmaniasis



Economic
 * Bad sanitation IE no way of controlling waste provides disease carrying sand flies with a desirable home
 * There is a high correlation Leishmaniasis and between malnutrition, displacement, poor housing, illiteracy, gender discrimination, weakness of the immune system, and lack of resources displacement, poor housing, illiteracy, gender discrimination, weakness of the immune system and lack of resources
 * From a global perspective there is very little money given to Leishmaniasis because it is non life threatening and expensive to completely treat.
 * No centralized information about Leishmaniasis reaching the rural areas.

Cultural
 * There is a huge social stigma against people with Leishmaniasis, especially women. Women with the gruesome symptoms of this disease are often left disfigured and thus ostracized, and deemed unsuitable to marry or raise children.
 * Since this disease mainly affects people in rural areas and refugee camps, there is a lot of miss information about the spread of the disease. Many people believe that it can be spread person to person from sharing meals, touching, or from common household goods
 * Because of the social stigma against people, especially women, with Leishmaniasis many people do not report cases and hide patients
 * Women, who are statistically at a higher risk for contracting Leishmaniasis are often unable to get treatment or information about the disease because of their husbands or fathers forbidding them from leaving the house.



Environmental
 * Climate change potentially expanding areas in which san flies can thrive
 * Leishmaniasis has been known to emerge in areas that have been deforested or where dams have recently been built