WHO urges states to address leprosy

THE World Health Organisation’s Western Pacific regional office this week urged its member states to make a final push to address leprosy in the region.
In 1991, WHO launched a global campaign to eliminate leprosy as a public health threat and set a leprosy elimination target of less than one case per 10,000 of population.
In that same year, the Western Pacific region met the elimination target. Over the next two decades, new leprosy cases in the region declined by almost 90%.
Still, three Western Pacific countries – the Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati and the Marshall Islands – failed to meet the target.
And there are still more than 5,000 new cases of leprosy reported in the region each year.
“Leprosy is curable,” says Dr Shin Young-soo, WHO regional director for the Western Pacific.
“We have the drugs and we have the knowledge.
“We can stop the disease from being transmitted from person to person.
“What we need is the political commitment to finish the job of true leprosy elimination in the Western Pacific.”
Shin urged policy-makers, health care workers and the general public not to be misled by the region having met the elimination target.
Shin said it was important for everyone to recognise that “leprosy still causes much suffering”.
“We need to address the unfinished business of true leprosy elimination”.
WHO’s call to action is taking place at the start of a three-day meeting of national leprosy control programme managers at the WHO Western Pacific regional office in Manila.
WHO called the meeting to introduce its new global leprosy control strategy, to review the latest epidemiological data and to help strengthen the capacity of countries to control the disease.
Among the countries that will be represented are Cambodia, China, the Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, the Marshall Islands, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines and Viet Nam.