Chennai: Tamil Nadu's health department has claimed to have achieved district level elimination of leprosy and in the process the state is found to be much ahead of other states in terms of its fight against the disease. However, the authenticity of statistics being provided is being questioned by experts and the medical fraternity.
As per state health officials, the government is taking health education seriously and training school children too. "Our policy is to treat cases that report to hospitals or doctors. We are also involved in active case detection, wherein the 720 school health teams thoroughly check school children. We are also covering the migrant population, which includes those working on construction sites," said Dr Kulandaisamy, Director, Department of Public Health.
With the state health officials taking an awareness pledge on World Leprosy Day (Monday), experts urge the health department to return to its former method of screening.
"During my service with the National Leprosy Eradication Programme (NLEP), we had to visit each and every house to see whether they had any asymptomatic patch. Though the screening was re-introduced last year, it was done so with public health staff. Persons trained for leprosy alone can diagnose an individual during the early stage of the disease.
However, the Public Health staff members are not experts trained in leprosy," said R. Siva, who has been working in the field by collaborating with Ramakrishna Math. He is also the former supervisor of the National Leprosy Eradication Programme.
