Science and Technology Against an Age-old Disease

          

         Science and Technology Against an Age-old Disease

 When I started working on the research and science of leprosy more tha a decade ago, people thought this chronic infectious disease would eliminate itself and burn out over time.

We didn’t have time for that. Why? Nearly 250,000 new cases of leprosy are diagnosed every year, and many more go undetected. Approximately 10 percent of new cases occur in children.

Even though it’s associated with biblical times, leprosy remains a problem in the modern era and was reported in 130 countries worldwide. It’s most prevalent in a number of countries throughout Africa, Asia and South America. Symptoms include progressive and permanent damage to the skin, nerves, limbs and eyes but they can take several years to appear, making the disease hard to diagnose at an early stage.

Even worse, leprosy comes with a stigma. Unlike most other diseases, leprosy results in isolation, as people with leprosy are often shunned. The good news, however, is that we now have the key scientific solutions and momentum as well as key collaborations to finally have the opportunity to eliminate leprosy. I couldn’t have said this 10 years ago….

At IDRI, we are also attacking leprosy in two different ways.