More than a decade after India eliminated leprosy, the disease continues to be a thorn in the side of Indian health policy. As the disease potentially shows signs of a resurgence, we may soon have to rethink its status as “eliminated”. A disease is considered eliminated when its prevalence is reduced to less than one case per 10,000 persons. This definition is critical to understanding that elimination does not necessarily mean that the disease is gone for good. It is only when a disease is defined as eradicated that it is established as having no new cases. An ancient disease once again rearing its head? The Central Leprosy Division of the Union Health Ministry reported the detection of 135,485 new leprosy cases in India in 2017. This means that, every four minutes, somebody was diagnosed with leprosy in India. The media is currently rife with claims that this is nowhere even close to being considered eliminated. Given the current population of India, cited in … Read Full Article about Is leprosy showing a resurgence?
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