Leprosy is making a comeback in India: Report

Bengaluru, Jan 5: Fight against leprosy seems to be not yet over in India. The numbers tell a different story which is in contradiction with the Union Minister for Health and family Welfare statement issued last year.

Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare J P Nadda had said that the country will be free of leprosy in 2018. However, a new report published in the data-journalism portal IndiaSpend raises serious doubts over the possibility of leprosy of India 2019-01-05 by 2018.

According to an article by Ramesh Menon, of the new cases detected, nearly half (67,160) have been diagnosed at an advanced stage. And the number of new detections is high. For instance, in Telangana's Adilabad district, a village called Kushanpally with 250 houses (1,040 people) turned up 19 cases.

Menon writes that there is no reliable pan-India study or survey on the incidence of leprosy, and he quoted activists saying that the government is reluctant to record new cases for fear of losing its 'elimination' status.

The government hurriedly announced in 2005 that leprosy was eliminated--which implies that incidence is one case per 10,000 (0.01%) because India received funding from the WHO to tackle leprosy, it was under pressure to show progress, writes Menon.

Activists who work with leprosy patients told IndiaSpend that the government is resisting documentation of new cases. After 2005, the number of new leprosy cases was deliberately kept within the elimination range (0.01% of India's 1.3 billion population).

However, ministry of health and family welfare officials deny this, saying their own efforts have led to improved detection, and increase in the number of cases detected does not mean incidence is increasing.

"No, leprosy is not rising in India, the numbers are rising because we are detecting more cases," IndiaSpend quoted Anil Kumar, deputy director general (Leprosy) at the ministry of health and family welfare, as saying.