WHO concerned about the onset of the leprosy epidemic in India
Last reviewed: 17.10.2021
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The World Health Organization (WHO) expressed concern about the growing number of new cases of leprosy (leprosy) in the poorest areas of India. According to Nata Menabde, the head of the WHO Regional Office for Europe, the number of new cases of disfiguring disease exceeds WHO's established standards in 209 of India's 640 districts.
Menabde recalled that the task of eliminating leprosy as a threat to public health was achieved by India in 2005. The criterion for elimination is the reduction in the number of new infections less than 1 in 10 thousand of the population.
However, six years after the official recognition of the eradication of leprosy, the situation with this infection has sharply worsened - first of all, in the poorest areas of the country. At present, as emphasized by the Menabde, India accounts for the majority of new cases registered in the world of this disease - more than 120 thousand per year.
Ten percent of newly diagnosed cases of leprosy occur in children. "All this shows that success in the fight against leprosy can be lost, and that India can lose the status of the country that eliminated this disease," the WHO representative emphasized.