“Do we still have leprosy?”
A businessman in Bombay asked me this when I told him about my research. I had a hard time stifling laughter (totally inappropriate, but I was pretty tired), because for the last six weeks, six days out of the week, all I had seen were cases of leprosy: in government hospitals, skin clinics, VD (venereal disease) clinics, NGOs, and even swanky private establishments.
WHO blister packs of multidrug therapy (MDT) for leprosy - Rifampicin, Clofazimine, Dapsone
Leprosy is almost everywhere and simultaneously nowhere in India. The country carries 1/3 of the global burden of disease. In December 2005, India achieved the WHO’s standard of leprosy elimination (less than 1.0 cases per 10,000), with the goal of eradication in 20-25 years. As of 2009, however, the WHO reports India to have a 1-2.0/10,000 prevalence rate of leprosy. And prevalence is often higher in some areas. So, while the countrywide picture is quite good, urban and rural pockets still carry a large burden of disease.
Bombay supposedly has a low prevalence (0.53/10,000), but as R. Ganapati, former head of the Bombay Leprosy Project, states, in areas of poverty — especially the city’s sprawling slums — the prevalence can be much higher (3-4/10,000). I did some of my research at the BLP, which is close to Bombay’s large Sion government hospital, in the Sion-Chunabhatti district of the city. The expansive Dharavi slum (made famous and notorious in the movie ‘Slumdog Millionaire’) feeds into this area, and many leprosy patients come fom here to BLP and other NGOs for care.
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he Center for Global Development highlights a shortage of dollars at The Global Fund.
