By Sanjay Kumar
NEW DELHI
(Reuters Health) - The Global Alliance for Leprosy Elimination,
which met for the first time in New Delhi Tuesday and Wednesday,
underscored a strong need for scaling up implementation of anti-leprosy
activities to detect and cure all remaining leprosy cases globally
so as to eliminate the disease by 2005.
The Alliance
was formed in November 1999 by representatives of leprosy-endemic
countries, the World Health Organization (WHO), the Nippon Foundation,
Novartis and the International Foundation of Anti-Leprosy Associations
to eliminate leprosy as a public health problem by 2005.
Leprosy affects
over 1 million people in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Pacific,
according to WHO. It estimates that between 2000-2005, some 2.5
million persons will have the disease. An estimated 2 to 3 million
persons suffer permanent disabilities due to leprosy, WHO officials
said here.
Leprosy continues
to be a public health problem in 24 countries while much of the
disease burden is shared by eight countries: Angola, Brazil, Guinea,
India, Madagascar, Mozambique, Myanmar and Nepal. India alone
accounts for 67% of the prevalence and 73% of the detection worldwide,
WHO states.
In 1991, the
World Health Assembly had resolved to eliminate leprosy by 2000
but the target proved elusive. WHO had defined "elimination"
as achieving a prevalence rate of less than 1 leprosy case per
10,000 population. The achieved target in January 2000 was 1.25
cases per 10,000 population.
"Any
'near miss' should not be interpreted as a failure of the strategy
itself but rather evidence of that the strategy was not being
applied vigorously enough in some national programs, and by some
of our partners in the field," Dr. Maria Neira, director
of Communicable Diseases Prevention and Elimination Program of
WHO, told Reuters Health.
The Alliance
partners and international experts expressed full faith in the
efficacy of multidrug therapy consisting of three drugs--rifampicin,
clofazimine and dapsone--in tackling leprosy and discounted any
problem of drug resistance.
"We don't
require a vaccine," Dr. N. S. Dharmashaktu, Deputy Director
General for leprosy in India's Ministry of Health, told Reuters
Health. "Multidrug therapy is extremely effective,"
he added.
"Despite
significant progress made so far, the geographical coverage of
leprosy diagnosis and treatment in many endemic countries remains
low and significant fear and stigma still surrounds the disease
and those who suffer it," admitted the Alliance partners
candidly in the main conclusions of the meeting.
"We have
four more years to consign leprosy to history and let us do it,"
said Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, director general of WHO, in a
message on the eve of the meeting.
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