Kala-azar in Pregnancy in Mymensingh, Bangladesh: A Social Autopsy

‘‘She begged pardon from us, from her child, from Allah...while she was getting down from the bed she closed her eyes, and started moaning. When we held her and made her sit on the bed, she said...Mother, I am dying, I am dying. She collapsed on my lap. We splashed water on her face. We said Doa Durud [religious verse]...then phoned my son.’’ This is how the mother-in-law of the deceased woman depicted the moments around the death that happened in Fulbaria subdistrict of Mymensingh district, Bangladesh in 2011. During a large study on kala-azar or visceral leishmaniasis, we learned of this pregnant woman with kala-azar, who had recently delivered a stillborn infant and died one week after delivery. In this article, we report a social autopsy of this motherchild death from kala-azar in pregnancy in Bangladesh.