'Aleppo Button' Disease Afflicts War-Torn City


The latest affliction to hit weary residents of Aleppo is written on their faces. Some call it the "Aleppo button", a welt caused by leishmaniasis, an illness that is sweeping the Syrian city.



"It's a fly that comes from pomegranates, it bites you and you catch the Aleppo button," he says.



But as the conflict forces people from their homes and into the city, once Syria's economic hub, the disease has taken hold in Aleppo like never before.

"Between 200 and 250 people with leishmaniasis come for treatment" each day, according to 23-year-old Ali, a medical volunteer at a makeshift clinic in the city.



-- Homemade insect repellent --


"The children spend most of the time outside of the house and they play in the street, among the rubbish," says Aisha, a 16-year-old student who has worked as a nurse since the revolution began.




Rabie, 30, working with his cousin and a friend, tours the Tariq al-Bab neighborhood armed with a strange machine that spits out white smoke.

"It's petrol mixed with insecticide," he said, a thin surgical mask on his face.

"We decided to organize ourselves now that summer is coming, to kill the flies responsible for the transmission of the disease to humans before they begin biting people," he said.



The machine was purchased in neighboring Turkey for $1,500 and is able to cover the dozen or so streets of each district in around an hour.



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