The World Health Organization (WHO) on Sunday urged countries in the South-East Asia region to urgently address gaps in leprosy services disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The organization called on these countries to accelerate efforts toward achieving the goal of eliminating leprosy, stigma, and discrimination.
The health body’s regional director for South-East Asia, Poonam Khetrapal Singh, said that leprosy is 100 percent curable if detected early, yet today, apart from the challenges associated with COVID-19, stigma, and discrimination, both institutional and informal, make it difficult to treat leprosy. hindering early diagnosis and treatment and facilitating further spread. This has to be changed, said Khetrapal on the eve of World Leprosy Day.
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Khetrapal said, 1,40,000 new leprosy cases were reported in 2021, of which 95 percent of new cases came from 23 global priority countries. Of these, 6 percent were diagnosed with a grade-2 disability (G2D).
He said that more than 6 percent of the new cases were children below the age of 15, of whom 368 were suffering from a grade-2 disability. Despite a 10% increase in new cases from 2020 to 2021, reported cases were 30% fewer in 2021 than in 2019.
He added that this is not because of a reduction in the spread of the infection, but because leprosy cases have not been detected due to disruptions related to COVID-19.
“Countries should urgently restore leprosy services, with a focus on expanding rifampicin chemoprophylaxis, intensifying active case finding, and ensuring early diagnosis and treatment with multidrug therapy,” the regional director said.
Emphasis should be placed on focusing on vulnerable populations, including women, children, migrants, refugees, elderly, homeless, residents of disadvantaged leprosy colonies, and those living in geographically inaccessible areas, to achieve the goal of zero leprosies, he added. can be obtained.
