Home Page

Department of Public Health & Preventive Medicine:

LEPROSY :

National Leprosy Eradication Programme was launched in 1954-55.
Multi Drug Therapy was launched in 1983.
Prevalence now is 4.3 per 10,000 population as against 118 / 10,000 in 1983.

Year	Prevalance per 10000 population
1983	118
1990	53
1995	9
2001	4.1
2002 (provisional up to March)	3.5

Our objective is to eliminate Leprosy to a prevalence of 1 / 10,000 in 2003.
Modified Leprosy Elimination campaign-1 was conducted in February, 1997 and 12,630 new cases were detected through door to door survey. MLEC-1 in Tamilnadu was a fore runner to the entire country. The detected cases have been treated.
MLEC-2 was conducted in January,2000. The strategy was changed to passive method. The staff and continuous IEC helped in motivating people for voluntary reporting and 12,603 new cases were detected.
Tamilnadu is the first State to integrate leprosy services with Primary Health Care services.
Geographical Information System is being introduced to monitor area wise leprosy cases..
Special Action Programme for elimination of leprosy in inaccessible areas is done. Regular skin camps are conducted in all districts. Regular treatment is given by routine verification of records and interrogation of patients.
Training to Medical Officers and Field Staff on prevention of deformities is done. Rehabilitation and prevention of impairment and disabilities clinic is conducted in all Primary Health Centres on Tuesdays throughout Tamil Nadu from January, 2001. Re-constructive surgery campaign for willing patients with help and co-operation from Non-Governmental Organisations is carried out.
Special Monitoring Surveys are undertaken to access the prevalence of leprosy with support from DANLEP and Central Leprosy Training and Research Institute. Health System Research studies are taken up for identifying operational problems.