While the government claims to have eliminated leprosy and the World Health Organisation (WHO) reports only one in 10,000 has the disease, the reality is very different in Karnataka where the number of multibacillary (MB) leprosy cases (six or more patches with the danger of infection) have shot up in the last year. At the Sumanahalli leprosy centre, 78 of the 145 patients were MB cases in 2010. But in 2011 121 of 131 fresh cases were of the new strain. “We were even more alarmed as of the 121, 23 showed deformity, and four of them were children,” says Fr George Kannanthanam, director of the centre..
In keeping with the resolution of the 44th World Health Assembly at Geneva (1991) to eliminate leprosy as a public health problem by 2000, leprosy was brought down, at least on paper to a prevalence of one case per 10,000 population. But with the Survey, Education and Treatment Programme (SETP) started under the National Leprosy Eradication Programme (NLEP) of the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) , being completely stopped by 2002, it became evident that the reduction was mainly due to lack of detection or reporting, says Fr Kannanthanam .
“Stopping the survey was a big problem as under the SETP volunteers from the district leprosy office visited slums and schools to check children and adults for leprosy and made sure they were treated early. But now the leprosy cases we are seeing are at a very advanced stage with high chances of deformity setting in,” he explains. Besides Sumanahalli, many other centres across the city too have registered new MB leprosy cases. The book, The Empty Nest, Leprosy Rehabilitation: The Sumanahalli Model, released on Monday in the city, says of the 75 new cases detected at St Johns' Medical College and Hospital in Bengaluru, between January and December 2011, 73 were of the MB kind.
The Rajarajeswari Medical College had 48 such cases and the ESI Hospital in Rajajinagar , 26, in 2011. “Its a matter of concern that these cases were not being reported anywhere and were missing from the national figures,” says Fr. Kannanthanam, calling for a revised National Leprosy Eradication Programme to meet this new challenge.
