According to records at the District Public Health Office (DPHO), 25 new leprosy cases have been recorded in the last six months. The new patients are receiving free medication from the DPHO.[break]
The real number of the patients suffering from the leprosy might be higher as the people tend to hide the disease due to the fear of being subject to social stigma attached with the disease. Last year too, 52 people were diagnosed with leprosy.
“The treatment is very effective and the patient will also get Rs 1,000 as an encouragement allowance. Still very few people contact the DPHO for leprosy treatment,” said Keyarsingh Godar, the chief of Chitwan DPHO. Godar also informed that people still are not aware about leprosy.
According to Jayaram Duwadi, an officer at DPHO, when Chitwan was declared leprosy free two years ago, leprosy prevalence was 0.99 per 10,000 population but now the number has now gone up to over 1 per 10,000. He also informed that 91 people were diagnosed with the disease in the fiscal year 2011/2012. Among the new patients, 45 were women and 6 were children. One person had developed deformity due to the disease.
“We have found leprosy in 7 people from the same family. People are still unaware that leprosy can be cured properly,” added Duwadi. Generally, leprosy cases have been found Bharatpur, Ratnanagar, Khairahani, Mangalpur, Jutpani, Sharadanagar and Gitanagar areas in the district.
Duwadi also opined that leprosy patients need not only medication but also proper arrangement for rehabilitation in society.
Two kinds of leprosy -- communicable and non-communicable -- are found in Nepal. Although leprosy is contagious, it does not transmit easily. The patients with the higher infection need to take medicine for up to 12 months while those with less infection can be cured with 6 months of medication. According to Duwadi, first doze of medicine itself is sufficient to render 99 percent of the leprosy bacteria inactive.
According to government data, 2,430 people are living with leprosy in Nepal while 110 have developed deformities due to the disease.
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