Leprosy Mailing List – September 25th, 2010
Ref.: Reference required.
From: Terence Ryan, Oxford , UK
Dear Salvatore,
I continue to receive anecdotes from concerned workers in the field of leprosy that Governance is not tackling the problem of the continuing existence of leprosy both as an active bacterial infection and as a presentation of disability. This is usually because the term elimination is taken to mean it no longer exists. I have a personal experience of Government employees cancelling my request for a biopsy, and of failure to refer on data on new cases to WHO in both
The reason for this email is to seek evidence that, from the highest level, Governments in Asia and Africa are being told that elimination does not mean eradication and that there are still new cases which must be treated if elimination is to mean no longer a public health problem. I would value a reference I could quote from for example the WHO so I can respond in answer to these anecdotes and I can say "OK don’t worry it is a problem that is being addressed and here is reference proving it”. Hand it on to those who will not provide MDT or are discarding your data.
I would also like to read in the Neglected Tropical Disease (NTD) literature not just that Leprosy is included but that it is very much in need of as much advocacy and continued funding as Malaria, TB, AIDs and the NTDs which currently seem to have more energy devoted to them. My reading of the NTD literature suggests to me that their governance could be made more aware that we still have a problem to be solved.
Sincerely
Terence Ryan
Emeritus Professor of Dermatology Oxford University and Oxford Brookes University
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