| MEETINGS |
| Health Ministers Give Progress Report |
| Elimination is getting closer, but a concerted effort is required. |
| At the annual World Health Assembly in Geneva in May, Goodwill Ambassador Yohei Sasakawa held meetings with health ministers from several African and Asian nations, who updated him on the status of leprosy elimination in their countries. The following is a summary of what they told him. |
Dr. Kyaw Myint
Minister of Health,
Myanmar |
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| We achieved elimination in February 2003. The key to our success has been to have health workers in the front line who are dedicated to the goal of elimination. In Myanmar, from midwives on, all our health workers share that goal. However, outside urban areas, challenges remain, and we are making intensive efforts to keep the prevalence rate below 1 case per 10,000. |
Professor Andry Rasamindrakotroka*
Minister of Health and Family Planning, Madagascar |
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Since your visit in 2003, we have formed mobile health teams that are making door-to-door visits in remote areas to reach patients.
Currently there are 13 teams, and this year we hope to increase the number to 23 teams covering 22 regions. The teams help to sensitize and mobilize government and religious leaders to recommend patients to go to hospital and receive free treatment. We are also training people. As a result of these efforts, the prevalence rate has come down from over 4 per 10,000 to 3.34. At this pace, elimination by the end of 2005 is a possibility, but we will need ongoing support if we are going to achieve this goal. |
Dr. Mwinyihaji Makame
Minister of Health & Social Welfare, Zanzibar
(also representing Tanzania on this occasion) |
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| The number of patients has dropped below 5,000, but we have yet to see the prevalence rate drop below 1 per 10,000. We are carrying out active search of the entire population, and the fact that IEC activities can be conducted in the same language - Swahili - throughout the country is an advantage. District and regional TB/leprosy coordinators travel to schools and community dispensaries looking for patients and providing information. |
Dr. Francisco Songane
Minister of Health,
Mozambique |
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| We remain committed to educating schoolchildren to check and see if any of their family members are showing signs of leprosy. We hold meetings with district administrators in every province to tell them about leprosy and give them literature about it. To achieve elimination by the end of 2005, we will need an extra push not just in the northern part of the country but nationwide. |
Dr. Albertina Julia Hamukwaya
Minister of Health,
Angola |
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The lengthy civil war is finally at an end, and as the domestic situation stabilizes, this is a good opportunity to move ahead with leprosy elimination activities.
At present, these cover about 60% of the country.
From now on, the urgent task will be to achieve 100% coverage, expand the MDT supply ratio (currently at 30%), and train health workers. An important aspect of this is community involvement. Encouraging early detection of patients, spreading the word that treatment is free, and eliminating stigma are tasks that must be carried out at the community level. |
| LEPROSY LEXICON |
●IEC
Information, Education and Communication activities serve several purposes: to raise awareness of signs and symptoms of the disease, encourage self-reporting and bring about an end to stigma. IEC messages are delivered via everything from TV to puppet shows. |
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| * In July, Professor Rasamindrakotroka was replaced as health minister by Jean-Louis Robinson. |
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