November 25, 2014
Vivek Gupta makes a Special Mention on leprosy eradication | Transcript
Honourable Chairman Sir, for you I would like to raise my special mention on need for more effective programmes for complete eradication of leprosy.
Sir, India continues to record the highest number of new leprosy cases every year. After six decades of implementation of the natural leprosy control programme, crores of rupees have been spent on various phases of leprosy eradication process. But the figure of leprosy prevalence in the country is far from being satisfactory.
While the rate of detection of new cases is escalating each year, 60% of new leprosy cases in the world are reported to be detected in India. It is also reported that govt has grossly underestimated the leprosy in India. Many districts continue to have incidents of leprosy in spite of the WHO benchmark of the elimination of leprosy.
While several States have a prevalent state of exceeding one per ten thousand, the West Bengal government has taken special measures to mitigate the prevalence of leprosy. Sir you will be happy to know that the number of cases detected has been reduced from 1.08 per ten thousand to 0.87 per ten thousand from 2012 to 2014.The other state governments should take similar steps like state of West Bengal to reduce leprosy cases.
The Government of India is answerable for inefficiency in wiping out chronic disease, they should be more effective and intense action planned to be implemented in states which have a leprosy rate of more than 0.5 per ten thousand populations. There is also a need for the government focus; more on awareness programme to fight this disease and rehabilitation of person suffering from leprosy.
