title: How do health care providers deal with kala-azar in the Indian subcontinent?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Three countries, Bangladesh, India and Nepal, set out to eliminate kala-azar by 2015. This study was aimed to document the knowledge and practices in kala-azar case management of public and private health providers in these three countries.
  
  
  METHODS
  A health care provider survey was conducted in 2007 at 4 study sites, viz., Muzaffarpur and Vaishali districts in India, Mahottari district in Nepal, and Rajshahi district in Bangladesh. Interviews were conducted with formal and informal health care providers at their home or practice.
  
  
  RESULTS
  About half of the providers in India and Nepal knew the rapid diagnostic test rK39 recommended by the elimination initiative, but this was not in Bangladesh. Knowledge of the recommended first-line drug, miltefosine, was good in India and Nepal but less so in Bangladesh.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Innovative tools for VL care have not yet been fully taken up by private for profit care providers in the three countries that launched a VL elimination initiative. The elimination initiative needs to address these gaps in private providers' knowledge, given their substantial share in the care of VL patients.
authors: RMRIMS (ICMR) Patna, India.
authors: Narendra
authors: N
authors: Kumar
authors: Shri Prakash
authors: SP
authors: Singh
authors: Dinesh
authors: D
authors: Mondal
authors: Anand
authors: A
authors: Joshi
authors: Pradeep
authors: P
authors: Das
authors: Shyam
authors: S
authors: Sundar
authors: Axel
authors: A
authors: Kroeger
authors: Siddhivinayak
authors: S
authors: Hirve
authors: N A
authors: NA
authors: Siddiqui
authors: Marleen
authors: M
authors: Boelaert
mesh_terms: D001459:Bangladesh / Q000453:epidemiology; D019090:Case Management; D060740:Disease Eradication / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006282:Health Personnel; D006801:Humans; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D007898:Leishmaniasis, Visceral / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D009390:Nepal / Q000453:epidemiology; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric