Successful elimination of leprosy in India, announces Health Minister

New Delhi – The Indian Government has announced the successful elimination of leprosy as a public health problem and aims to eradicate it within the next 20 years.

Elimination of leprosy is defined as less than one case per 10,000 population. As on December 31, 2005, the country recorded prevalence rate of 0.95 case per 10,000 population.

“As a result of the hard work and meticulously planned and executed activity, the country has achieved the goal of eliminating leprosy as a public health problem,” said Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss, Union Health Minister in New Delhi on Leprosy Day, January 30. "We are going to continue with the same vigor if not even more vigor."

The National Health Policy 2002 had set the goal of eliminating leprosy in India by the end of 2005.

A total of 408 districts in the country achieved leprosy elimination by December 2005. Only two districts of Delhi – New Delhi and central Delhi – have a prevalence rate of over 5 per 10,000 (the highest number of cases in the country) because of a large migrant labour population. Twenty–six states and union territories have eliminated leprosy, while six endemic states – Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal – have prevalence rates of between 1 and 3 per 10,000. The six states, which are home to 41 per cent of India’s population, contribute 60 per cent of the country’s leprosy cases.

Interestingly, Delhi, Chandigarh and the union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli have also reported prevalence rates of between 2 and 3 per 10,000, said Ramadoss who added that this was due to patients from neighbouring states coming for treatment to big hospitals in these cities.

The minister added that at the start of 2005, 1.49 lakh leprosy cases were on record as of April 1, 2005, giving a prevalence rate of 1.34 cases per 10,000. This declined to 1.07 lakh cases on December 31, 2005, with a prevalence rate of 0.95 per 10,000 population.

Leprosy, which dates back at least as far as biblical times, is not fatal. But the infectious disease can lead to severe disfigurement, and social stigma usually follows.

A campaign led by the World Health Organization (WHO) to eliminate leprosy led to a dramatic worldwide drop in the disease in the last decade. The program was launched in 1991 after multi–drug therapy (MDT) made it possible to cure victims of the disease. Nearly 10 million people have since been treated, and most countries declared the disease eliminated by 2000.

But leprosy persisted in several countries, including India, Brazil and Madagascar, with India alone accounting for nearly half of the worldwide cases.

According to the WHO representative in India, Salim Habayeb, India's size, combined with old prejudices, created several obstacles to the effort to wipe out the disease.

"It is the logistics. It is harder to reach everybody in the periphery," explained Habayeb. "And also there is stigma and discrimination that drives people underground, and they suffer in silence without mentioning that they do have leprosy. But things have improved dramatically, especially when awareness was raised that leprosy is indeed curable, so people started coming earlier, before any deformity appears."

However, health experts have warned that India must not lower its vigil, because leprosy is "down but not out."

According to them, it could take up to 25 years before the disease can be completely eradicated, and they say prevention and treatment campaigns must not lose momentum.