Leprosy concern for Ganjam
BERHAMPUR: With a prevalence rate (PR) of 2.01 per 10,000, the highest since 2009, leprosy seems to have made a comeback in Ganjam district, cocking a snook at the Health department’s claims of taking adequate steps to eliminate the disease.
As many as 731 new leprosy patients were identified between April and December last year signalling the reemergence of leprosy as a serious public health concern in the district.
The number of patients, in fact, has been on the rise since the last decade. While 279 new cases were detected in 2009-10, it rose to 427 in 2010-11, 422 in 2011-12, 362 in 2012-13, 436 in 2013-14, 575 in 2014-15, 837 in 2015-16, 781 in 2016-17, 731 in 2017-18 and 777 in 2018-19.
As per official statistics, while the PR of leprosy was 0.48 per 10,000 in 2009-10, it went up to 0.63 in 2010-11, 0.73 in 2011-12, 0.53 in 2012-13, 0.62 in 2013-14, 1.19 in 2014-15, 1.68 in 2015-16, 1.48 in 2016-17, 1.53 in 2017-18 and 1.69 in 2018-19.
Official sources said the new cases were detected by Asha workers during door-to-door checks. The patients are being administered medicines under the multi-drug therapy offered by the Health department.
While the first phase of detection of leprosy cases for 2019-20 is over, the second phase will begin from next month.
District Leprosy Eradication Officer Dr Truptilata Mohapatra said people do not come forward for health check-ups as they are wary of the social stigma associated with the disease.
She said block nodal leprosy workers have been engaged to detect cases of leprosy every Monday, Thursday and Saturday.
Worrying trend
The prevalence rate of the disease is at its highest since 2009
While PR was 0.48 per 10,000 in 2009-10, it rose to 2.01 in 2019-20
The number of new cases was 279 in 2009-10 and it went up to 777 in 2018-19