Himachal Pradesh has reached the elimination stage of leprosy as prevalence rate is less than one case per ten thousand population. All the districts are low endemic in the State. Additional Chief Secretary, Health R.D. Dhiman stated this while presiding over state coordination committee meeting on leprosy case detection campaign, here today.He said that Sparsh leprosy awareness campaign will be started on martyr day of father of the nation Mahatma Gandhi on 30thJanuary, 2019 which would culminate on his 150th birth anniversary on 2nd October, 2019.He said during the campaign, leprosy case detection will be done in selected districts of the State i.e. Kangra, Kinnaur and Mandi whereas focused leprosy campaign will be started in Bilaspur, Chamba and Shimla where cases of grade-II were found during 2016-17.R.D. Dhiman said the prevalence rate of leprosy in the state during 2017-18 was 0.19 as compared to national average of 0.66. Similarly annual new case detection rate in the state is 1.76 which is much higher than national indicator of 1.02, he added. He said awareness regarding leprosy was much higher in the State due to increased level of Information, Education and Communication (IEC) activities and early detection and treatment.
While speaking on the objectives of the campaign Mission Director National Health Mission Manmohan Sharma said that household contact survey will be done by ASHAs and heal workers for detection of cases. He said major focus shall remain on IEC activities for awareness, early detection, prompt treatment and reduction of stigma associated with leprosy affected persons. Suspected cases in hard areas would be referred to concerned zonal or district hospitals so that cases could be confirmed for treatment.Joint Director Health Dr. R.K. Baria said that during awareness campaign it was envisaged that gram/ward sabhas would be organized in all villages and urban wards in the State. He said main objective of this campaign is to bring out reduction in the incidence of annual grade-II cases to less than one case per million population at the national level by October 2, 2019.Dy. Director Dr. Prakash Daroch gave his view point on the campaign.