Tamil Nadu to focus on curbing leprosy at the block level

Health Dept. will subsequently initiate measures at the PHC and village levels

After the move to actively look for leprosy cases yielded results in the last few years, the Public Health Department is now aiming at lowering the prevalence rate of the disease to less than one person per 10,000 by 2020 at the block level.

This will be the State’s own target, as it had already achieved the district-level prevalence rate reduction in 2005 as fixed by the Central government, Health Department officials said.

District-level target

“Though, we achieved the target in 2005, we wanted to go further to the block-level. So, we are taking blocks as units. Out of the 385 blocks in the State, at least 30 to 50 blocks have a prevalence rate of more than one person per 10,000. We will focus on these blocks and reduce the rate by 2020,,” said K. Kolandaswamy, Director of Public Health and Preventive Medicine.

Active case finding drives have helped the department to trace hidden cases in the last few years, he added.

“There was sharp increase in the number of new cases during 2015-16. Similarly, we were able to detect more cases during 2016-2017 and 2017-2018. Currently, leprosy’s prevalence rate is 0.39 in the State,” Mr. Kolandaswamy said.

It was in 2012 that the department realised that just voluntary reporting of cases at health facilities were not enough, added S. Mohammed Afzal Ali, Additional Director, Leprosy.

“So, we started to look at blocks that had a high prevalence rate through active searches. These continuous efforts have been helping us detect new cases and treat them so that the infection rate can be reduced first at the block level. Then, we plan to move on to the primary health centre level and after that, the village level,” he said.

Post-exposure treatment

Two active searches last year — Active Leprosy Case Finding in 87 blocks and Leprosy Case Detection Campaign in 17 districts — detected 684 and 688 new cases respectively, officials said.

S. Thirunavukkarasu, State Leprosy Consultant, said they have rolled out post-exposure prophylaxis to tackle the disease’s contagiousness. “Studies have shown that a single prophylactic dose of rifampicin could reduce the chances of infection by 60% in those who have come in contact with patients. Currently, 4,000 patients are under treatment, and each could have 10 to 20 contacts, who will receive the dose. This includes family members and neighbours,” he added.