Eliminating visceral leishmaniasis as a public health problem in the South‐East Asia Region

VL, or kala-azar, is targeted for elimination as a public health problem (defined as an annual incidence of less than one case per 10 000 population at the district level in Nepal and at subdistrict level in Bangladesh and India) in the WHO South‐East Asia Region. In 2005, three endemic countries in the Indian subcontinent (Bangladesh, India and Nepal) signed a memorandum of understanding to eliminate kala-azar from the region. In 2014, this agreement was extended to include two more countries (Bhutan and Thailand).