The leprosy burden, Papua New Guinea

 

Leprosy Mailing List – July 28^th, 2012

Ref.:   The leprosy burden, Papua New Guinea (see attachments)
From: M Pahun, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea

---

 

Dear Dr Noto,

 

I was reading the leprosy burden in Gabon [LML July 17^th, 2011] and, it is very interesting to know the situation and the trend of leprosy from other countries.  It helps us to learn and share experiences so we can improve the leprosy situation in our Countries.  Thank you very much to Dr Mondjo and, congratulation for having this Leprosy Mailing List.

 

I have  received all updated reports from our provinces.  Herewith I would like provided you the information about the leprosy burden in Papua New Guinea in PDF files.  Original Excel documents are also available on request.

 

In the first file is reported the leprosy situation in our Country per Province with a map and a table in 2011.  At national level the new cases detected were 301.  The new cases detection rate per 100000 population was 4.3.  The number of children with leprosy aged less than 15 years old among the new cases was 84 and their proportion was 28%; this indicator is high and might mean that transmission of leprosy is still high in Papua New Guinea.  The number of females among the new cases was 102 and their proportion 34%.  The number of new cases of leprosy with grade 2 disability was 6 and their proportion 2%.  The cure rates for paucibacillary cases was 53% and for multibacillary 31%.  This last indicator (cure rate) is low and might indicate that for several reasons many patients abandon treatment before completion of the treatment regimens.

 

The second file reports the new cases detected (NCD) and new cases detection rate (NCDR) trends per Province from 2007 to 2011.  Provinces are listed per decreasing NCDR in 2011.

 

Of course all comments from the LML readers will be appreciated.

 

Best regards,

 

Miriam Pahun

 

Leprosy Program Manager
Disease control, Public health
National Health Department
P.O. Box 807,Waigani
NCD, Port Moresby
Papua New Guinea

 

 

 

 

---

LML - S Deepak, B Naafs, S Noto, P A M Schreuder
LML Archives: http://www.aifo.it/english/resources/online/lml-archives/index.htm
Dr Salvatore Noto
Padiglione Dermatologia Sociale
Ospedale San Martino
Largo R. Benzi, 10
16132 Genoa, Italy
Tel: (+39) 010 555 27 83  -  Fax: (+39) 010 555 66 41  -  E-mail: salvatore.noto@hsanmartino.it