THE Ministry of Health is planning to conduct a series of surveys to identify factors that are hampering efforts to curb leprosy, a senior health official said last week.

The manager of the National Leprosy Control Program, Dr Kyaw Myint, said the surveys would begin in March.

He was speaking to Myanmar Times on February 1, on the sidelines of a ten-day workshop to provide training in research methods for health officers involved in the leprosy control program.

The workshop, organised by the ministry and World Health Organisation, began at the Health Professionals Training School in Dagon township on January 24.

“Leprosy will remain a chronic infectious disease with low prevalence for many decades. Therefore research is necessary to identify appropriate strategies to deal with new challenges after the elimination of leprosy,” Dr Kyaw Myint.

Myanmar achieved leprosy elimination at the national level in January 2003.

The prevalence of leprosy at the end of 2003 was 0.51 for every 10,000 people.

Dr Kyaw Myint said that the program would continue its efforts to sustain the elimination of leprosy and to establish care networks for those with the disease to minimise its health, social and economic consequences.

“Research on case detection, performance of health supervisors, the reasons of patients’ late visits to clinics and rehabilitation is needed to ensure that health care services are accessible, acceptable and affordable,” he said.

He said the research will be conducted at eight townships Bago and Mandalay divisions and at two skin clinics in Yangon and Mandalay.

The research will be used to improve the services provided by the National Leprosy Control Program.

Dr Kyaw Myint also called for community efforts to welcome former leprosy patients back into society.

The program has also conducted a two-year pilot study on the rehabilitation of leprosy patients which began at Shwe Taung and The Kone townships in Pyi district in March 2002, said Dr Khin Maung Lay, a team leader of leprosy control programs in the district.

The study, which involved more than 1700 patients who sought treatment at health centres in the two townships 15 years ago, found that 30 percent of them had a deformity caused by the disease.

“The study found that rehabilitation had enabled 27 per cent of the patients with a deformity to be more active,” Dr Khin Maung Lay said.

He said it was necessary to develop appropriate rehabilitation strategies to limit the stigma and socio-economic burden of leprosy patients.

“There are 280,000 patients who have received multi-drug treatment, of whom 50,000 were found to be disabled as a consequence of the disease,” Dr Khin Maung Lay said.

This was why rehabilitation would become the program’s priority after the disease was eliminated, he said.

Dr Khin Maung Lay said early diagnosis and treatment was essential to prevent permanent disability and deformity from leprosy.