NATIONAL LEPROSY ELIMINATION PROJECT

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The objectives of this project are to eliminate leprosy as a public health problem in India by the turn of the century by reducing the disease prevalence from 2.4 per 1,000 to 0.1 per 1,000 and to reduce the impact of leprosy disability. The project finances the incremental cost of a six-year time slice of an enhanced National Leprosy Eradication Program. This brings an added value and efficiency to this program through the promotion of an appropriate mix of service delivery mechanisms, policies and strategies, provision of a wider and more effective package of leprosy services, and expansion of the use of appropriate technology. This project focusses on program enhancements in five activities: (a) expansion of multidrug therapy through a vertical structure targeting about 66 high-endemicity districts and providing outreach services to the community and service circuits; (b) integration of multidrug therapy into the general health care system in about 77 intermediate-endemicity districts and pockets of infection; (c) disability care and prevention through health education, preventive precautions, physiotherapy, supportive medicines, ulcer care and reconstructive surgery; (d) promoting public awareness and community participation; and (e) enhancing skills and institutional development through the provision of short-term training to about 160,000 persons and strengthening program coordination capabilities.