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Leprosy requires renewed efforts, greater push: WHO
The World Health Organizationâs (WHO) Southeast Asia regional office says countries need to renew their commitment for the last mile to completely eliminate leprosy worldwide even though the number of cases has come down to less than a quarter of a million from 11 million in 1983
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he World Health Organization's (WHO) Southeast Asia regional office says countries need to renew their commitment for the last mile to completely eliminate leprosy worldwide even though the number of cases has come down to less than a quarter of a million from 11 million in 1983.
WHO Southeast Asia regional office director Poonam Khetrapal Singh said it was time for leprosy programs to focus on the remaining leprosy endemic areas. Detection of leprosy in children was evidence of continued transmission of the disease, while grade 2 disabilities or visible deformity indicate delayed detection of the disease, she said.
'We now need to work towards zero child cases with visible deformity or grade 2 disability by 2020 and detecting all new leprosy cases before disability,' Khetrapal Singh said on Monday.
Focused case-finding activities should be rolled out to early detect leprosy cases and complete treatment with multidrug-treatment (MDT), WHO says.
'Breaking the chain of transmission between the patients and healthy population remains the strategic choice for controlling leprosy,' Khetrapal Singh said.
In 2014, 215,656 new leprosy cases were detected worldwide. The Southeast Asia region alone accounted for 155,385 of the cases, or more than 72 percent of the cases count. Ninety-six percent of leprosy cases are limited to 15 countries, which report more than 1,000 new cases annually.
A small proportion of patients having visible deformities in their hands, feet and eyes due to delayed detection experience stigma associated with disfigurement. Globally, 13,289 such new cases with visible deformities or grade 2 disabilities were detected in 2013. One in every 10 new leprosy patients is a child. Globally, 19,796 new cases of leprosy were found in children.
Khetrapal Singh said there was a need for further research concerning the fact that resistance to antimicrobials, particularly rifampicin, had been an imminent risk.
'Recognizing the need, WHO spearheaded an initiative of developing a network of sentinel centers to monitor the occurrence of drug resistance to leprosy in all leprosy-endemic countries,' she said.
The results from the sentinel centers have been encouraging, in which the incidence is low. 'WHO believes in continuing such surveillance to sustain the gains achieved by MDT in controlling leprosy,' said Khetrapal Singh. (ebf)(++++)
