Chennai: The Centre will soon launch a massive leprosy detection and elimination programme on a case by case basis in 20 states endemic to this disease in the country while simultaneously roll out the programme to administer the shots to households to reduce the transmission.
Asserting that this mass detection programme would be one of the biggest such one in the world, Union health minister J.P. Nadda, said he would look into all the legal issues concerning the leprosy affected persons and ensure their lives were made better. Inaugurating the ‘National Awareness Convention on Leprosy’ held under the aegis of Ramakrishna Math, Chennai, CSIR-CLRI, Chennai and Saksham, Nagpur, on CLRI premises here on Saturday evening, Nadda said the Centre restrategised the leprosy prevention programme and focussed more on the endemic districts in India.
Following this, 7.5 crore people were screened in 50 districts of seven states and out of them 65,000 were suspected cases while 5,000 were confirmed leprosy cases. “Now we will launch the second phase of this campaign soon to cover 163 endemic districts spread across 20 states in India,” he said.
Vaccination to prevent transmission: Stating that India has a huge burden of 60 per cent of leprosy cases, while some district showing higher prevalence, ICMR director Dr Soumya Swaminathan claimed that 10 per cent of the children were affected by leprosy due to transmission.
