Leprosy Mailing List – April 28, 2015
Ref.: (LML) The Missing Millions: A Threat to the Elimination of Leprosy
From: Shen Jianping, Nanjing, PR China
Dear Pieter,
I have read the article "The missing millions: A Threat to the Elimination of Leprosy" (LML April 25, 2015). I basically agree to the viewpoints of Prof Smith and his coauthors. But I have some points of view that are different from Dr Smith and I put forward my points of view here:
- The peak of the number of new cases detected over the period of 2001-2005 might be mostly contributed by India. There were continuous 3 years of LEC all over the country. There were many over-diagnosed leprosy patients; some diagnosed leprosy patients even did not exist.
- Prevalence of leprosy will linger for a long time at the very low level, but after development of social economy in all countries in the world, the declined situation of leprosy control will never reverse. The overall trend of leprosy prevalence will decline, although there may be some fluctuations in the number of new cases in some countries.
- We have called for new tools for early diagnosis and improving community awareness of leprosy for many years, however it progresses too low and we may have no time to wait for that day to see new tools in leprosy control. What we only can do now is to sustain available routine activities of leprosy control and strengthen early case detection and treat patients with MDT. I believe that after 10 -20 years from now, the burden of leprosy in the world will further decrease with available techniques and methods of leprosy control.
- Before 2012, the annual number of new cases was more 1200, but in 2013, the number detected new cases first decreased to below1000 in the record of leprosy detection in China. Last year in 2014, this number further decreased to below 900. I think in a big country with population of 1.4 billion, the situation of only a several hundred of new cases of leprosy must lead a changing strategy of leprosy. The battlefront against leprosy will shrink and will not spread to all over country, but deploys in some pocket areas. Improving community awareness is only necessary in a village with a leprosy problem but not at county or district level.
With best regards！
Dr Shen Jianping
National Center for Leprosy Control
Nanjing, PR China
LML - S Deepak, B Naafs, S Noto and P Schreuder
LML blog link: http://leprosymailinglist.blogspot.it/
Contact: Dr Pieter Schreuder << editorlml@gmail.com
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