快猫短视频

Delhi

THE WHO鈥檚 campaign to eliminate leprosy by the turn of the century is
unrealistic, and could discourage spending on urgently-needed research,
scientists warned last week at an international conference in Delhi on the
disease.

At the meeting, the WHO called on health ministers from some of worst
affected countries to support its goal of 鈥渆liminating leprosy as a public
health concern by the year 2000鈥�. But critics say the date is impractical,
because the disease afflicts the remotest parts of some of the world鈥檚 poorest
countries. And they warn that money for research into leprosy is already drying
up because funding organisations believe that the threat is disappearing.鈥漈here
is lots of research to be done but some governments are already tending to pull
out,鈥� says Robert Jacobson, director of the Gillis W. Long Hansen鈥檚 Disease
Center in Carville, Louisiana.

William Cairns Smith, a public health specialist at the University of
Aberdeen, says that while the WHO elimination programme has had some positive
effects, 鈥渢he downside is that by putting the target at 2000, everything could
collapse afterwards鈥�. If new cases continue to appear at current rate leprosy
programmes will be needed long afterwards, he argues. 鈥淧eople have to wake up to
the realisation that this isn鈥檛 the end.鈥�

There are an estimated 1.3 million people in 60 countries who have leprosy.
To eliminate the disease, its prevalence would first have to be brought down to
1 in 10 000, the WHO says. Yet Southeast Asia has six times this rate. An
effective drug treatment does exist, but logistic problems in poor countries
often make it difficult to administer.