Vietnam Strives to Eliminate Leprosy by 2015

Vietnam has been accelerating efforts to cut the leprosy rate and root out the disease by 2015 in line with the National Leprosy Eradication Program. The information was released at a conference in the central highlands province of Lam Dong on Sept 25 aiming to eradicate leprosy in 21 remaining provinces and cities by the next five years. Delegates proposed a number of solutions to cope with the disease, focusing on epidemiological monitoring, information work to raise the people’s awareness of the epidemic in remote and rural areas, and the combination of treatment methods. In 2000, the World Health Organization (WHO) recognized Vietnam’s success in eliminating leprosy, bringing the incidence of the disease to below 1 per 10,000 on the national scale under the WHO's standard, the program’s management board said. Since 2002, Vietnam has launched campaigns to erase the disease in accordance with the country’s standards. Thus, 42 cities and provinces nationwide fulfilled the targets of bringing the prevalence rate of leprosy to below 0.2% per 10,000 people last year. The annual detection rate of new cases at below 1 per 100,000 for three consecutive years, the rate of disability among newly-discovered patients at under 15%, and having 100% of randomly-surveyed medical workers and local officials understand the basics of leprosy. However, 21 remaining cities and provinces, mostly in central, central highlands and southern regions, are struggling with leprosy with over 1,000 cases found per year. (Vietnamplus.vn Sept 27, Nhan Dan – The People Sept 27)