VIENNA -- The Swiss-based World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday appealed for 1.2 million dollars to treat tens of thousands of people infected with a disfiguring disease in the Afghan capital Kabul.

Some 200,000 people in the city are estimated by the UN health agency to be infected with leishmaniasis, which leads to disfiguring facial injuries and long-term disability, and is treatable with an injectable drug, IRNA reported.

Head of WHO's leishmaniases control program, Philippe Desjeux, told reporters in Geneva that the disease could spread among returning refugees who are particularly susceptible to disease if no action is taken.

"We have now the problem of refugees coming back from Pakistan," he said.

WHO is focusing first on Kabul, but said the disease also occurs in Herat, Kandahar and Mazar-i-Sharif to a lesser extent.

Gro Harlem Brundtland, who director general, warned in a written statement of the need to grab the opportunity for immediate action to interrupt transmission and avoid a big increase in cases next year.

The form of leishmaniases in question is passed from person to person via the bite of a sandfly and spreads quickly among a concentrated population, especially among the poor. It breeds quickly in unsanitary conditions.

After biting an infected person, the sandfly spreads the disease each time it bites.

WHO said transmission occurred from may to October.

Leishmaniases in its different forms is endemic in 88 countries and it is believed that 12 million people worldwide are infected.