TEHRAN The production and laboratory test of leishmaniasis vaccine has been successfully carried out in Iran, announced Dr. Yahya Dolati, Head of the Center for Training and Research on Skin Diseases and Leprosy. He told the Scientific Desk of IRNA on Monday that the vaccine is being produced at Razi Serum Manufacturing Factory and tested at Pasteur Institute. Dolati said that the vaccine is also being tested at various universities in the country with the coordination of the center which launched research work on the vaccine in 1996.

Further elaborating on the disease, Dolati said leishmaniasis is both a skin and internal disease, adding that the vaccine is currently being tested in Pakistan and Sudan. The World Health Organization (WHO) has cooperated with the center in the manufacture of the vaccine, said the official, praising services of Dr. Abolhassan Nadim for his great contributions to the effort. He said the center is currently conducting important research works on other skin diseases such as penphigus and vitiligo.

Another report said that Iran's pharmaceutical consignment for people of northeastern Afghanistan was received by the local officials of Feizabad, capital of Badakhshan Province, it was announced here Monday. Seyyed Ebrahim Hekmat, the Ambassador of the Islamic Government of Afghanistan to Tajikistan told a Tajik newspaper that Iran's humanitarian aid consists of four tons of medicines sent to Dushanbe by plane.

He added that the fatal disease which has been spread out in northeastern part of the country is under control by using the medicines. A fatal disease, which is said to be a kind of cold, has so far claimed over 200 lives in northeast of Afghanistan.