Epidemiology in the Leprosy Mailing List

Leprosy Mailing List – May 13^th, 2012

Ref.:   Epidemiology in the Leprosy Mailing List (LML)
From: C Lombardi, São Paulo, Brasil

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Dear leprosy specialists,

I have been following the LML closely for many years.  In the past few months, I have noticed that posts concerning clinical and therapeutical issues have become the great majority.  Indeed, these issues are crucial, but what worries me is that the epidemiological issues concerning leprosy are being approached, and usually very lightly, by professionals whose background is not mainly in epidemiology and public health.

I would like recall that epidemiology and statistics have methodologies and paradigms of their own.  According to these, the health/disease phenomena in a collectivity are not merely the sum of the individual phenomena related to health/disease.  Thus, a clinical and therapeutical approach to a disease cannot suffice to explain the epidemiology of the given disease.

Obviously, all opinions should be voiced and heard, as these exchanges are always fertile.  It is just as obvious that in the last few decades, the leprosy elimination process as a public health problem has eventually faced mistakes and deviations.  Nevertheless, I believe that only a broad, knowledgeable and experienced discussion could evaluate properly the impact of this process and to define perspectives for the future.

In this sense, I judge necessary a debate that would include renowned specialists in epidemiology of leprosy, such as Prof. M. F. Lechat, Dr. S. K. Noordeen, Prof. C. Smith, Dr. P. Feenstra, Dr. P. Fine, Prof. J. Ferreira, amongst many others.  Perhaps the adequate moment for such a discussion could be the next World Leprosy Congress to be held in Brussels, September 2013.

Sincerely,

Dr. Clovis Lombardi

São Paulo, Brasil