Centre to launch door-to-door leprosy detection campaign

Chennai, September 2016:

Alarmed over the increase in number of persons with disabilities caused by leprosy, the government of India will launch a door-to-door leprosy case detection campaign in 163 districts in the country, including Erode in the State.

Deputy Director General (Leprosy), Anil Kumar told newspersons on the sidelines of the 50{+t}{+h}anniversary celebrations of German Leprosy and TB Relief Association India on Saturday that high endemic districts were being targeted and a total of 40 crore people would be physically examined during the 14-day campaign. Those with symptoms would be referred to medical officers and treatment provided.

“Any district reporting prevalence of 1/10,000 population during the last three years would be covered. Chhattisgarh has the highest number of districts to be covered, followed by Dadra Nagar and Haveli,” he added.

On the increase in cases with disabilities, Dr. Anil Kumar said that till 2005 there was a dip in number of cases when the country achieved elimination in leprosy. “But the numbers started going up, after that as we depended on passive case detections. New cases that have lead to grade-II disabilities has gone up from 3 per cent in 2011, to 4.6 per cent now,” he said.

Apart from the campaign, States have been asked to detect new cases. “Since reporting the cases is a problem a web-based reporting system will be put into place soon and block-level data of confirmed cases would be reported in it,” he added.

Earlier, agriculture scientist M.S. Swaminathan, who formerly headed a committee on leprosy eradication, said the role of NGOs in leprosy and TB eradication was enormous.

He recalled how the committee had stressed the need for including a nutrition component in the treatment protocol since most patients were poor. However, that was not implemented, he said.

He hoped that by the time centenary celebrations of the GLRA happened, India leprosy and tuberculosis would only be words in the dictionary.

GLRA initiates projects and supports several NGOs across 14 States in India. Over the decades, it has treated 23 lakh leprosy patients and 2.1 lakh persons with tuberculosis. The Hindu