Health Minister announces Leprosy Cases Detection Campaign for Delhi

Health Minister announces Leprosy Cases Detection Campaign for Delhi  

Health Minister, Shri Satyendar Jain on Friday announced the launch of the Leprosy Cases Detection Campaign for the national capital. This fortnight long intensive campaign will be conducted from 10^th to 23^rd November.

The campaign will be conducted in eight districts of Delhi – Shahdara, North, North West, West, South West, South, Central and New Delhi.

The fortnight long activity will see field teams comprising ASHA workers and volunteers conducting house to house visits for screening and detecting hidden Leprosy cases under supervision of experts in Leprosy.

LEPROSY CASE DETECTION CAMPAIGN:

■     The LCDC as a flagship activity of NLEP is unique in its approach as various committees are formed at each level i.e., National, State, District, Block to plan & implement the LCDC. Intensive IEC activities, through various media are conducted during and before the LCDC.

■     Under this focused training of all health functionaries from District to Village level being given.

■     The teams herein are being trained to suspect the leprosy patients through physical examination of each and every person of house visited.

■     House to house visits by team encompassing one Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) and male volunteer i.e. Field Level Worker (FLW), conducted during LCDC days as per micro-plans prepared for local areas.

■     Supervision of house to house search activities are done through identified field supervisors. Central Monitors nominated by Central Leprosy Division are directly monitoring the activities. Continuous, systematic collection and compilation of reports is being done through the formats designed for this purpose which are filled by search teams and supervisors.

■     After the completion of the campaign the post LCDC evaluation also carried out through independent evaluators.

■     LCDC was undertaken for the first time in 2016 in six districts. In 2017 it could not be under taken as funds could not be released on time.

■     This year initially All the 11 Districts were planned for LCDC, but as per the latest directive of Sparsh Leprosy Elimination Campaign where in the objective is to reduce the incidence of Annual new G2D cases, LCDC will be conducted in 8 districts – in districts with more than 3 percent of the new cases as Grade 2 Disability cases.

■     Leprosy Case Detection campaign will be conducted from 10/11/2018 to 23/11/2018 in Eight Districts of Delhi (Shahdara, North, Northwest, West, Southwest, South, Central and New Delhi). The fortnight long activity will see field teams comprising of ASHA worker and a volunteer visiting house to house for screening of the population of hidden cases of Leprosy under supervision of experts in Leprosy.

■     ASHA workers who are involved in Polio work will complete the Polio activity and then continue the LCDC work to complete 14 days.

■     Early Detection of Leprosy cases prevents disability and deformity and leprosy is completely curable. The teams and District and State Administration will also aim for IEC and awareness creation among the general public during the fortnight.

■     AS per the guidelines LCDC will not be conducted in Southeast, Northeast and East District. In those Districts Focused Leprosy Campaign will be conducted at hot spots of Grade 2 Disability Cases.

FACTS ABOUT LEPROSY:

1. Leprosy is not hereditary.
2. It is a bacterial disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae.
3. Source of infection is an untreated leprosy patient.
4. Its diagnosis is easy and confirmed by three cardinal signs.
   A. Hypo-pigmented patch with loss of sensation.
   B. Nerve involvement (thickened) with muscle weakness.
   C.  Acid fast bacilli in skin slit smear examination.
5. Multi drug therapy (MDT) is highly effective to kill Mycobacterium leprae
6. 99% bacilli are killed after first supervised dose of MDT.
7. Early detection and prompt treatment prevents disability due to leprosy.
8. No child should get disability. In case a child gets disability, it is a shame on us.
9. We target to achieve less than one case of disability per million population by 2020.
10. Early management of lepra reactions can prevent nerve damage and development of disabilities.

DETAILS & BACKGROUND

Leprosy is caused by Mycobacterium leprae intracellular, obligatory parasite. It is a slow growing bacillus and one Leprosy bacillus takes 12–14 days to divide in to two. It is an acid-fast bacillus and is stained red by a dye called carbol fuschin.

Source of infection:

Untreated Leprosy affected person (Human beings) is the only known source for M. leprae.

Portal of exit:

The major sites from which bacilli escape from the body of an infectious patient is respiratory tract especially nose. Only small proportion of those suffering from Leprosy can transmit infection.

Transmission of infection:

Leprosy is transmitted from untreated Leprosy affected person to a susceptible person through droplets, mainly via the respiratory tract.

Portal of entry:

Respiratory route appears to be the most probable route of entry for the bacilli.

Incubation period:

Incubation period (Duration from time of entry of the organism in the body to appearance of first clinical sign and symptom) for Leprosy is variable from few weeks to even 20 years. The average incubation period for the disease is said to be 5–7 years.

Host factors:

Age: Leprosy can occur at any age but is usually seen in people between 20–30 years of age. Increased proportion of affected children in the population indicates the presence of active transmission of the disease in the community. As the disease burden declines, it is seen more in older age groups.

Gender: Disease occurs in both the genders. However, males are affected more as compared to females

Immunity: Occurrence of the disease depends on susceptibility/immunological status of an individual.

Socio-Economic Factors: Leprosy is a disease generally associated with poverty and related factors like overcrowding. However, it may affect persons of any socioeconomic group.

Factors influencing susceptibility:

• Age: Children are more susceptible than adults.
• Individual immunity: May be determined by certain genetic factors which influence the susceptibility of an individual
• Climate: Leprosy is prevalent in tropical and subtropical climates.

India had achieved the elimination of Leprosy in December 2005 but it still had active cases. The Grade 2 disability cases were an indication that there were still hidden cases and those cases were not detected early to prevent them. The stigma attached to Leprosy is one of the reasons why cases remained hidden.

■     In a last push to achieve complete eradication GOI has worked out a no. of innovations to detect hidden cases in the population, of which Leprosy Case Detection Campaign is one of them.

■     Leprosy Case Detection Campaign is a House to House Search for hidden cases.

■     The Prevalence rate of Leprosy in Delhi is 1.03 however the Grade 2 Disability percentage is 12.79 % which is much higher owing to its cosmopolitan nature of Delhi. The figure 12.79 % is inclusive of cases both from Delhi and outside Delhi.

Sub Divisional Monitoring Teams: