CHENNAI: Leprosy has been around for thousands of years. Several countries and international agencies have launched a war against it - the drugs to cure it are effective and cheap. Most countries, like India, offer them free. And yet, the 'curse' has not been entirely eliminated.
India has 55% of the world's burden of new leprosy cases - it recorded that more than 3,000 people had visible disability in 2012. During the World Leprosy Week (Jan 30-Feb 5) doctors and healthcare workers said they knew why.
One of the most important reasons, they said, is a lack of a dedicated national-level programme and funding for prevention and management of leprosy. "In 2005, when India declared it had eliminated the disease, several NGOs reduced funding by more than 50%. The government has integrated the leprosy-prevention programme with the general healthcare scheme," said G Srinivasan, national medical advisor of GLRA India, an NGO working in the leprosy sector.
Even states like Tamil Nadu haven't been able to keep the incidence of the disease low. Last year, 3,119 new cases were detected in Tamil Nadu. Of these, 145 people had visible disabilities. Even more disturbing is that the number of children with leprosy in the state is several times higher than national average. State leprosy officer C Siva Sankar did not reveal statistics, but said the incidence was higher among children because they had a better screening programme. "Almost all government school children are screened regularly," he said.
GLRA members, who have been working in India since 1966, also suggested how the hurdles can be overcome. "Our only hope is multi-drug therapy, which has cured many people," he said.
Multi-drug therapy (MDT), a cocktail of three antibiotics, is designed to kill the leprosy-causing Mycobacterium leprae. Left untreated, leprosy can cause serious limb deformities. In India, the most common mode of transmission is human-to-human - via nasal secretions or droplets. Though not highly infectious the bacteria in these droplets can enter the body through breaks in the skin.
According to the World Health Organization, there were 5.2 million people with leprosy in 1985. The multi-drug regimen, which drastically reduced the global burden, consists of dapsone, rifampicin and clofazimine and is given for 6-12 months or more. "For years, India has been distributing the drug, yet we have not reached zero. Not because the drug isn't effective, but because they don't get access to medication," said social worker Padma Venkatraman, who has been working at the grass roots level for four decades.
Ever since the country integrated the leprosy programme with general health care, patients are forced to visits PHCs and GHs. "Doctors there aren't sensitised to problems of leprosy patients. Patients visit doctors only when the disease is in the advanced stages," she said.
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