International Leprosy Congress in Hyderabad
A world free of leprosy is within reach
Novartis and the Novartis Foundation for Sustainable Development are working toward the elimination of leprosy.
“Toward a world without leprosy” was the motto of the 17th International Leprosy Congress in Hyderabad, India.
The 17th International Leprosy Congress was held by the International Leprosy Association from January 30 to February 4, with support from Novartis and the approval of the Indian government. In recognition of Novartis and the Novartis Foundation’s ongoing role in the fight against leprosy, Novartis Foundation President Klaus M. Leisinger gave one of three opening addresses at the congress. Leisinger praised the effective collaboration between the World Health Organization (WHO), non-governmental organizations and private sector foundations, and described these efforts as one of the biggest success stories in public health. He warned, however, “The war has not yet been won completely. We must learn from our successes in order to solve this problem permanently.”
“The war has not yet been won completely. We must learn from our successes in order to solve this problem permanently.”
Goal of elimination nearly achieved
Disability care at the clinic
Vera Haag Arbenz, head of the leprosy projects at the Novartis Foundation, emphasized the strides made in the fight against leprosy: “In 2007 there were a total of 224 717 cases of leprosy worldwide, with 259 017 new infections in 2006. These numbers reflect the huge reduction achieved since the mid-1980s, when there were about ten million leprosy cases. In the future, we expect the number of new infections to decrease annually by five to ten percent.”
In 2007, the fight against leprosy has again made significant progress. “Tanzania has reached its goal of eliminating the disease. Now there are only four countries left in which leprosy is a public health risk: Brazil, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique and Nepal. Not long ago, in 1985, there were 122 countries on this list. The goal of elimination is reached if there is at most one leprosy patient per 10 000 inhabitants,” Haag Arbenz explained.
Novartis has made these multi-drug therapy medicines available free of charge since 2000 and will continue doing so until 2010.
Novartis and the Novartis Foundation have played an instrumental part in this success story. Novartis developed Rimactane and Lamprene, two of the three drugs used in the successful multi-drug therapy (MDT) for combating this disease (the third component is Dapsone). Novartis has made these MDT medicines available free of charge since 2000 and will continue doing so until 2010. “In the past seven years alone,” Leisinger said, “this approach allowed us to help 4.5 million patients.” Additionally, The Novartis Foundation has been engaged in pioneering work to develop new methods of fighting leprosy. One such example has been the foundation’s use of social marketing to remove the stigma of the disease, an approach the WHO has acknowledged for its success. “Patients will contact the necessary health institutions and take the free medicines,” Leisinger, ”only if leprosy is seen as a completely normal disease.”
Challenges for the Future
Checking for early signs of leprosy
A central focus for the future is the consistent further implementation of the global WHO strategy on the fight against leprosy for the years 2006 to 2010. Early detection of cases and their treatment with MDT medicines remain fundamentally crucial to these efforts.
The strategy centers on the following concrete goals:
- Further reduction of the prevalence of leprosy in Brazil, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique and Nepal to less than one case per 10 000 inhabitants
- Quality control in areas with fewer disease cases
- Strengthening of drug supply systems, information, training of medical personnel and the development of a functional referral system
- Expansion of efforts to fight the disease in under-supplied areas
- Further reduction of the social stigma affecting leprosy patients
- Decrease of the imbalance that exists between genders
- Guarantee of an adequate distribution of external resources for combating leprosy
NFSD
For more than 20 years, the Novartis Foundation for Sustainable Development has been engaged in the fight against leprosy.
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We work in partnership with various groups to promote access.
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