Leprosy Mailing List – May 24, 2025
Ref.: (LML) Declaring Leprosy as a Notifiable disease across India
From: P. Narasimha Rao, Hyderabad, India
India is a large country with 28 states and 8 union territories (UT) and Government of India is making concerted efforts to eliminate leprosy. However, Leprosy was not a notifiable disease across India till now, although it is a notifiable disease in States like Tamil Nadu, Odisha, and Karnataka. At this juncture it is relevant to note that administration of 'Health' is a state subject matter in India, although the national health policies are recommended/ promulgated by the Ministry of Health (MoH), Govt of India.
I am happy to share the news that the Govt of India has taken the decision to make 'Leprosy a notifiable disease' across India and announced the same through a DO letter, (D.O. No. Z-14020/05/2025-Lep. from MOHFW, Govt of India, dated 14 May, 2025), signed by the Secretary, MOH, Govt of India. Through this letter, the Secretary, MOH, Govt of India has directed all its state and UT health administration to declare leprosy as a 'Notifiable Disease', applicable across all sectors—government, private, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), corporate health-care-providers, and medical institutions, including private medical colleges.
This letter states that reporting of all diagnosed cases of leprosy to the District Leprosy Officer or Chief Medical Officer of the respective district should be mandatory. It also mentions that in order to achieve the objective of leprosy-free status in a region, it is imperative that every newly detected case of leprosy is reported promptly. a) to the National Leprosy Eradication Program (NLEP) to ensure that all patients benefit from the services available under NLEP and b) to facilitate the administration of chemoprophylaxis to healthy contacts to prevent further transmission.
All the major stakeholders of Indian leprosy, including the (IAL (The Indian Association of Leprologists) and IADVL have welcomed this decision, as non-notification of leprosy was an impediment in collecting factual leprosy data across India till now.
Kind regards,
P. Narasimha Rao, MD, D.D, PhD
President, International Leprosy Association (ILA)
Immediate Past President, Indian Association of Leprologists (IAL)
Past President, Indian Association of Dermatologists, Venereologists and Leprologists (IADVL)
Mobile-+91-9849044898
Email: <dermarao@gmail.com>, <int.lepr.association@gmail.com>
Website: www.internationalleprosyassociation.org
_______________________________________________________________
LML - S Deepak, B Naafs, S Noto and P Schreuder
LML blog link: http://leprosymailinglist.blogspot.it/
Contact: Dr Pieter Schreuder << editorlml@gmail.com
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Leprosy Mailing List" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to leprosymailinglist+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/leprosymailinglist/b520f53a-7788-4c1c-b7cd-959451dc1df1n%40googlegroups.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment