Cure the stigma

The media have often been accused of obsessing on the bad and the sensational. Let us, therefore, give you some good news. As of December 31, 2005, leprosy has been virtually eliminated in India.

The media have often been accused of obsessing on the bad and the sensational. Let us, therefore, give you some good news. As of December 31, 2005, leprosy has been virtually eliminated in India. Thousands of people in the country still do suffer from the wasting disease, and others may still get infected. But as of now, its prevalence has been brought down to less than one case in every 10,000 people. For any other disease as easily curable as leprosy, the half-a-century that it has taken the government and NGOs to bring its prevalence down to this stage would seem far too long. But then, fighting the disease has been the easy part of it.

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The main struggle faced by those involved in the programme has been to calm the fears of a society that has historically discriminated against and ostracised those diagnosed with the disease. Mindsets generated by laws enacted at a time when there were no known cures or preventives to stop the degenerating infection from spreading — such as the Lepers Act of 1898 in India (now repealed), which advocated the segregation of lepers from the rest of society — have not been easy to change. Despite the efforts of people like Mahatma Gandhi and Mother Teresa, entrenched attitudes against those infected are not easy to change and remain the main hindrance to completely eradicating the disease from the country — a goal that Union Health Minister A. Ramadoss says will realistically be achieved only in the next 20 years, considering its long incubation period. Prejudices go to such levels that even those completely cured find their families and communities still shunning them.

The government must take immediate advantage of the huge optimism generated by its latest report of the declining levels of leprosy incidence to reverse these attitudes. Now is the time to drive home the message that leprosy is both easily curable — within six to 12 months — and, after the first dose of the multi-drug therapy (MDT), non-infectious. In the combat with the scourge, there’s need to replicate the aggressive approach towards eradicating myths associated with Aids.