Government Of India Introduces Update On Leprosy Cases In The Country
The Government of India has launched National Strategic Plan (NSP) & Roadmap for Leprosy (2023-27) on 30th January, 2023, to achieve zero transmission of leprosy by 2027 i.e. three years ahead of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3.3. The NSP and Roadmap contains implementation strategies, year-wise targets, public health approaches and overall technical guidance for the programme. The strategy and roadmap focuses on awareness for zero stigma & discrimination, promotion of early case detection, prevention of disease transmission by prophylaxis (Leprosy Post Exposure Prophylaxis) and roll out of web-based information portal (Nikusth 2.0) for reporting of leprosy cases.
After achieving elimination status at national level, National Leprosy Eradication Programme (NLEP) has taken a number of initiatives to encourage early case detection of leprosy patients to prevent Grade 2 Disabilities, and to ensure free of cost treatment of leprosy patients. There are few districts within States/UTs, where leprosy is endemic. With various intervention introduced under NLEP in the last few years, number of new leprosy cases detected have come down to 75,394 in 2021-22 from 1,25,785 in 2014-15, accounting for 53.6% of global new leprosy cases. The current NLEP State-wise data is annexed.
India has achieved the elimination of leprosy as a public health problem as per WHO criteria of less than 1 case per 10,000 population at the National level in 2005.
State wise NLEP data FY 2022-23 (up to Jan’2023)
|
S.No. |
State/UT |
Prevalence Rate (PR)/ 10000 population |
|
1 |
Andhra Pradesh |
0.5 |
|
2 |
Arunachal Pradesh |
0.1 |
|
3 |
Assam |
0.2 |
|
4 |
Bihar |
0.9 |
|
5 |
Chhattisgarh |
2.3 |
|
6 |
Goa |
0.2 |
|
7 |
Gujarat |
0.4 |
|
8 |
Haryana |
0.1 |
|
9 |
Himachal Pradesh |
0.2 |
|
10 |
10 Jharkhand |
1.4 |
|
11 |
11 Jammu & Kashmir |
0.1 |
|
12 |
Karnataka |
0.3 |
|
13 |
Kerala |
0.1 |
|
2314 |
14 Madhya Pradesh |
0.9 |
|
15 |
15 Maharashtra |
1.2 |
|
16 |
16 Manipur |
0.1 |
|
17 |
17 Meghalaya |
0.0 |
|
18 |
18 Mizoram |
0.1 |
|
19 |
19 Nagaland |
0.1 |
|
20 |
20 Odisha |
1.2 |
|
21 |
21 Punjab |
0.2 |
|
22 |
22 Rajasthan |
0.1 |
|
23 |
23 Sikkim |
0.2 |
|
24 |
24 Tamil Nadu |
0.3 |
|
25 |
25 Telangana |
0.7 |
|
26 |
26 Tripura |
0.0 |
|
27 |
27 Uttar Pradesh |
0.4 |
|
28 |
28 Uttarakhand |
0.3 |
|
29 |
29 West Bengal |
0.5 |
|
30 |
30 A & N Islands |
0.1 |
|
31 |
31 Chandigarh |
1.4 |
|
32 |
32 D & N Haveli |
1.0 |
|
33 |
33 Daman & Diu |
0.1 |
|
34 |
34 Delhi |
0.8 |
|
35 |
35 Lakshadweep |
0.0 |
|
36 |
36 Ladakh |
0.3 |
|
37 |
37 Puducherry |
0.1 |
The Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Dr. Bharati Pravin Pawar stated this in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today.