Patna, March 15: The Bihar government will provide minimum specified wages to kala azar patients and one of their attendants during their stay in hospital for treatment.

Chief minister Nitish Kumar announced this in the state capital today while launching a campaign against the disease.

The campaign is being conducted by the state health department and international medical non-government organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres, the winner of the 1999 Nobel Peace Prize.

“Most of the patients suffering from kala azar are poor. They survive on daily wages. When the disease affects them, they are doubly hit. Also the family members accompanying them to hospital cannot earn during the period. We therefore want to help them financially,” Nitish said.

He also announced to donate Rs 10 crore from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund this year for the purpose.

The state government’s move is expected to benefit over 25,000 kala azar patients in the state.

Over 750 people have died of kala-azar in the past five years, while 76 persons died of the disease last year alone.

The chief minister said: “At present, the state government specified daily wage is about Rs 140 per day. The rate will be revised soon. The beneficiaries will be given money according to the new rate. The state will also provide them (the kala-azar patient and his/her attendant) free meals at the hospital and bear the cost of their transportation to the health institutions and back home, once they are discharged after treatment.”

In a dig at the health department officials, Nitish said some of his announcements in the past never saw the light of the day, as “the officials put them on the backburner” on the pretext of lack of funds.

“I will not tolerate this. Therefore, I am earmarking funds for the scheme,” he said.

Medecins Sans Frontieres India head Bjorn Nissen said Bihar accounted for about 80 per cent of India’s kala-azar cases and is considered to be the kala azar epicentre on the global scale with 11 of its districts being worst hit.

The chief minister admitted that several strategies, launched by his government, to battle the disease “were not carried out till the last mile”. “This time, I urge the health department not to sit back till we root out the disease completely,” he said.

Nissen advocated the need to adopt combination drugs to battle the disease, rather than monotherapy that has been reported to be ineffective in Bihar.

Deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi, also present at the launch, stressed the need to adopt healthy civic habits and improve sanitation conditions in the rural areas to curb kala azar.

Veteran kala-azar expert Dr T.K. Jha said: “While the World Health Organisation protocol recommends that women undergoing kala azar treatment should be on contraception for at least three months during and after the treatment, it is not taken care of.”

A team of mountaineers, accompanying Santosh Yadav, the first woman in the world to scale Mount Everest twice, also rappelled from Biscomaun Towers, the tallest building in Patna, earlier today to spread awareness on kala azar.