Globally, January 26 is the annual World Leprosy Day. The world is raising awareness of the disease that many people believe is already extinct. I hitherto presumed that leprosy was an ancient contagious and deadly disease acclaimed to have existed as far back as 500BC and can only be curtailed by isolating the affected person in a colony to prevent infecting people globally.
A document from the National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control Programme indicates that Nigeria is among the 17 countries in the world that are still reporting more than 1,000 new cases of leprosy annually. Despite achieving the World Health Organization’s (WHO) elimination target of less than one person per 10,000 populations at national level in 1998, with these significant pockets of leprosy disease, its endemic nature remains at sub-national level across the country.
It is estimated that 4000 leprosy cases occur in Nigeria annually and Ogun State is one of the states where leprosy cases are being notified every quarter of the year. An average of 30 cases of leprosy is found yearly, meaning that there is still active transmission of the disease in our communities which could be tackled effectively if government can intensify more effort on public awareness and adopt active approach mechanism of detecting the disease before spreading.
Recent clinical findings showed that most of the victims of this disease do not believe that they were infected because they did not understand its symptoms at early stage due to poor public awareness. Most of the victims were treating something else for too long only to discover a full blown leprosy with evident of fingers numbs among other symptoms. Nigeria, with an estimated population of over 250 million citizens, should not be caught unawares from silent re-emergence of leprosy in the society.
Today, patients of new leprosy cases are no more isolated in colony like before. They are now being treated like normal patients with free clinical therapy and drug at various health facilities. This is due to discovery of modern drugs like Dapsone, Rifampicin and Dofazamine and the adoption of Multi Drug Therapy (MDT) that cures leprosy patients in a- 12month dose, just like the discovery of antiretroviral drugs to stem HIV/AIDs endemic in the society today.
Experts are worried that Nigeria could be facing a re-emergence of leprosy at a time global health spotlight and funding focus on diseases like HIV, malaria, among others. And the disease is still silently active because we are recording new cases, but we will not relent in contributing our quota at stemming the spate of leprosy, though it is considered a high risk disease but advancement in medicine has made it completely treatable.
Ending stigma is critical in the fight to end leprosy. Not only does stigma lead to the exclusion of and discrimination towards people with leprosy, it can also prevent people from seeking treatment when they suspect something is wrong – leading to a greater likelihood of avoidable disability, and of transmitting the disease over time. In contrast, early detection and treatment can prevent the development of disability and destroy the harmful bacteria that cause leprosy.
Lateef Ositelu,
Ogun State