Leprosy Mailing List – October 23, 2016
Ref.: (LML) Multiplying investment
From: Joel Almeida, Mumbai and London
Dear Pieter,
Thanks to Ben Naafs for his kind words (LML, October 21, 2016).
I think the challenge is to expand the cake of financing, so that every slice gets larger. Otherwise we have various segments squabbling over crumbs, and trying to pull down some other segment. It works better if we are inclusive and encouraging.
We can expand the cake by:
1) Using YLD (years lost to disability) to express the burden of leprosy in globally standardized terms.
2) Publicizing the increasing trend of leprosy in India, as shown by the rising trend in the incidence rate of newly detected cases with visible deformity at diagnosis.
3) Demonstrating what effective interventions can do in the short term, e.g. in terms of protecting people against the devastating nerve damage of leprosy.
4) Making a plan for improving outcomes, including through developing human resources and filling important gaps in knowledge. This global plan needs to have budgetary implications attached. Then the gap in financing becomes evident.
5) Being careful not to claim victory, or pretend that it is inevitable. A long war with M. leprae still lies ahead of us.
We need to inspire the world with our plans to cope with the current situation, and to keep improving. Other people working on leprosy are not our enemy, even if they are doing things we consider sub-optimal. We have one common enemy: M. leprae. All our energy and ingenuity needs to flow together like tributaries of a river, which gradually wears down rocks over a long period.
This is a marathon, not a sprint. All of us can play a useful role, according to our abilities and circumstances. Let's be grateful that those of us doing action research are doing it on leprosy rather than something else.
Joel
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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