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WHO says Tanzania on right path to eradicate leprosy
2005-05-18 08:33:51
By Juma Thomas
Impressed by the government's seriousness in the fight against leprosy, the World Health Organization (WHO) Goodwill Ambassador for leprosy elimination Yohei Sasakawa says he is confident that come end of this year Tanzania will have completely eliminated the world’s oldest disease.
The World Health Organization target is to bring down the disease's prevalence rate below one case per 10,000 people by the end of this year.
So far about 116 countries in the world have managed to bring the number to one case in 10,000 people.
Tanzania has not attained to that level but Sasakawa says the seriousness demonstrated by the government is a clear testimony that the disease will become a thing of the past at the end of this year.
Sasakawa, who is also the President of Nippon Foundation, a Japan based non governmental organization that fights leprosy, visited Tanzania early this month and had talks with President Mkapa and some officials of the ministry of health on the current situation of leprosy in the country.
'I am impressed by the way the government is working tirelessly to meet the WHO target of eradicating the disease that has caused human suffering for thousand of years,' he says.
The government launched a special campaign to fight leprosy in 1998 and ever since more than 6000 patients have been found and treated.
Most of these came from Kigoma, Mtwara, Morogoro, Shinyanga, Tanga, Coast, Lindi, Kagera and Dar es Salaam.
The ministry of health has also established a special programme on leprosy and tuberculosis.
Under the programme patients receive free treatment from both government and private hospitals.
The Minister for Health, Anna Abdallah says the progromme will continue to ensure that drugs are available countrywide.
The programme also seeks to expand treatment services to the level of dispensaries as well as carrying more public awareness campaigns on the disease.
Through the programme the public is now aware of the symptoms and many people go for treatment once they suspect catching the disease.
The common symptoms include dry scars, swelling on the face and ears and paralysis on the limbs.
Leprosy elimination strategy is now at a crucial stage focused on the ten countries including Tanzania, where the disease remains a public health problem.
Other countries are Angola, Brazil, Central Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, India, Madagascar, Mozambique and Nepal.
Together these countries account for 84 per cent of the registered cases at the beginning of 2004 and 80 per cent of the new cases detected during 2003.
Sasakawa believes however that with the commitments the government has shown in the fight against the disease, Tanzania was likely to meet the WHO target.
The WHO Goodwill Ambassador who travels the globe to support international communities in the war against the disease spreads three messages—leprosy is curable, treatment is free and social discrimination has no room.
While two of his three messages seem to have been understood by the majority of the people, the third message has not sunk well in the minds of many as people with leprosy are still seen as outcasts in many societies.
Many are still discriminated against because of their deformities. Sasakawa says his second assignment is to have them accepted by their societies.
He says eradication when eventually achieved will not in itself signify the end to the trial suffered by millions who have already been ravaged by leprosy, nor will it bring an immediate end to the social stigma that has long been as pernicious and persistent as the physical scourge.
'It is this aspect of leprosy that I am now turning my attention to with equal vigour,'he says.
Although more than 14 million people were cured of leprosy in the 1980s they were not accepted by their societies
'Leprosy denies the victims their human rights, therefore we must struggle to eliminate the problem, 'he says.
WHO estimates that there are 500,000 cases of leprosy worldwide and it is most prevalent in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
Nippon Foundation was founded in 1974 by Sasakawa's father, Ryoichi and since its inception the Foundation’s activities centred on a quest to conquer the disease as a physical scourge.
In the 1980s the Foundation developed a multi-drug therapy, transforming leprosy into a curable disease. More than 12 million leprosy patients worldwide have been cured by the therapy.
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