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Saturday, Feb 04, 2006 Opinion A battle won http://www.hindu.com/2006/02/04/stories/2006020403621100.htm Aarti Dhar The prevalence rate of less than 1 per 10,000 population is a significant milestone for India in its fight against leprosy. ON DECEMBER 31, 2005, India achieved the globally defined prevalence rate of less than 1 per 10,000 population, a milestone in eliminating leprosy. From accounting for 70 per cent of the world's leprosy cases in the 1950s, the country has brought down the prevalence rate to 0.95 per 10,000 over the next five decades. There is no place for complacency. The anti-leprosy programme has to continue at its present intensity to reduce the prevalence rate in areas that are yet to achieve the target. This will help avoid any possible recurrence of the disease in areas where success has already been achieved, and ultimately lead to its total eradication. In May 1991, the World Health Assembly adopted a resolution for global leprosy elimination by 2000. In 2001, after the target was achieved, it was reset to December 2005 for the remaining 14 countries. India was one of the 14 countries that also included Brazil, Madagascar, and Nepal. The National Health Policy 2002 also set the goal of leprosy elimination in India by 2005. There were 1.49 lakh leprosy cases on record in the country on April 1, 2005, a prevalence rate of 1.34 per 10,000 population. By December 2005, the number of cases on record came down to 1.07 lakh, a prevalence rate of 0.95 cases per 10,000 population. If official statistics are to be believed, 24 States and Union Territories achieved the target set by the World Health Organisation by March 2005. Two more - Maharashtra and Goa - were added to the list by November. Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal continue to have a prevalence rate of between 1 and 3 per 10,000. These six States, which account for 41 per cent of the country's population, contribute 60 per cent of the caseload. The high prevalence rate in the major States is attributed to the late detection of leprosy cases. Since leprosy was initially believed to be endemic to southern States, particularly Tamil Nadu, the Leprosy Control Programme, begun in 1955, was concentrated in these areas. All southern States now have a very low prevalence rate though the percentage of disability due to the disease is high. The lowest prevalence rate is in Meghalaya, 0.11 per 10,000, followed by Manipur at 0.13 per 10,000. Tamil Nadu has a prevalence rate of 0.69, Andhra Pradesh 0.62, Karnataka 0.65, Kerala 0.31, and Pondicherry 0.27. The National Leprosy Control Programme, begun in 1955, became the National Leprosy Eradication Programme in 1983. A significant aspect of the programme was the Five Modified Leprosy Elimination campaigns carried out between 1998 and 2004 to generate awareness about the disease, train health care workers, and detect hidden leprosy cases in all the States and Union Territories and put them under Multiple Drug Therapy (MDT). The campaigns helped detect close to 10 lakh leprosy cases. In 2004-05, the Government came up with a plan focussing on high prevalence rate and moderately endemic districts. It later shifted to the block level under the Focussed Leprosy Eliminated Plan launched in 2005. The proportion of children afflicted by leprosy among the new cases detected stands at 10.2 per cent at the national level. Higher proportions are reported from Andhra Pradesh (12.2 per cent), Bihar (16.2 per cent), Gujarat (12.5 per cent), Jharkhand (12.7 per cent), Kerala (12.5 per cent), Maharashtra (12 per cent), Tamil Nadu (17.2 per cent) and Pondicherry (16.1 per cent). Analysis in these States has to be done at the block level to take suitable remedial actions. Copyright © 2006, The Hindu. __________________________________________________________ Yahoo! India Matrimony: Find your partner now. Go to http://yahoo.shaadi.com
