The sixth phase of the State Health department’s leprosy case detection campaign, Aswamedham 6.0, begins across the State on Thursday (January 30).
Health workers’ teams will make home visits continuously for a fortnight from January 30 till February 12 as part of active surveillance for the detection of hidden and untreated cases of leprosy in the community.
Aswamedham 6.0 will be inaugurated by the Health Minister Veena George here on Thursday.
A health workers’ team, including a trained ASHA and a volunteer, will visit homes and examine people to check if they have any symptoms of leprosy, such as discoloured or hypo-pigmented patches on the skin or any unexplained numbness on the fingers or limbs without any sensation.
New cases
Though the number of leprosy cases have been decreasing in the State, new cases continue to be reported at the rate of 0.11 per 10,000 population. Child cases continue to be reported in Kerala. The State is under constant threat of a resurgence of leprosy because of the influx of a huge population of migrant workers from States like Assam, West Bengal, Bihar, and Jharkhand where the disease is highly prevalent.
Reducing leprosy prevalence rate to less than 0.1/10,000 population, reducing child cases of leprosy from 1.17 /million to 0.6/ million, sustaining the rate of child cases with zero deformity and reducing Grade 2 deformity from 1.2/million to less than 1/million are some of the health targets to be achieved by 2030, based on UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
Treatment of leprosy is free in all government hospitals and the most important message to the community is that leprosy is completely curable at any stage of the disease, with six to 12 months of multi-drug therapy.
Leprosy is an air-borne disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae, which predominantly affects the skin and peripheral nerves, resulting in neuropathy and associated long-term complications, including deformities
Leprosy prevalence rate
The leprosy prevalence rate in the State is 0.14 – 0.15, which technically means that leprosy has been eliminated as a public health problem (defined as achieving a point prevalence of below 1 per 10,000 population). However cases continue to occur. In 2022-23, Kerala reported 489 new leprosy cases while in 2023-24, 407 new cases were detected.
As community awareness about the importance of early detection and treatment is key to reducing the case burden, a leprosy awareness campaign, “Sparsh” is also being launched alongside Aswamedham.
