| Abstract: | Leprosy is a chronic infectious disease which, if untreated, can lead to permanent and progressive nerve damage and thus to deformities of the limbs, eyes, and face. People with leprosy have long been ostracized by society. The clinical signs of leprosy include insensitive skin lesions and thickened peripheral nerves. Untreated infectious leprosy cases are the main source of infection, transmitting the disease through nasal secretions. People with low cell-mediated immunity are at risk of developing clinically active leprosy irrespective of gender, age, or social class. The World Health Organization (WHO) has, since 1982, recommended multiple drug therapy (MDT) against leprosy, an approach capable of curing the disease within 1 year and interrupting its transmission. According to WHO, leprosy is currently a public health problem in 55 countries and more than 20% of the estimated 1.15 million cases of leprosy worldwide remain undetected. Although Sri Lanka was the first country in South Asia to provide MDT to all registered leprosy patients, first making it available in 1984, the disease continues to be transmitted due to the large number of undetected cases in the country. An ongoing social marketing program was therefore launched in 1990 by the local health ministry and the Novartis Foundation for Sustainable Development to eliminate leprosy from Sri Lanka. The program encourages people with suspicious skin lesions to seek diagnosis and care, teaches health care providers to recognize leprosy and refer cases for treatment, and helps the general public to understand that leprosy is just a normal disease. The socially marketed product is MDT, provided free-of-charge by the Novartis Foundation to all leprosy patients. |
