Ministry to speed up search for new leprosy patients

Ministry to speed up search for new leprosy patients
Published 3 October 2019

 

Ministry of Health and Sports will extend its work to find new leprosy patients in wards and villages as around 2,000 new patients are detected every year. 

According to the 2018 figures, 0.39 in 1,000 populations suffered from leprosy. The ministry will conduct applied surveys on the reason why the patients fail to take medicine.

The ministry will upgrade the 700-bedded Yaynantha Leprosy Specialist Hospital in Madaya Township into the rehabilitation hospital (upper Myanmar), said the Union Minister for Health and Sports Dr. Myint Htwe, at a ceremony to introduce Myanmar National-Level Rehabilitation Strategic Plan (2019-2023). 

The ministry is working on rehabilitation works in conformity with the World Health Conference’s declarations, the Law for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 2015, the bylaws for the rights of Persons with Disabilities 2017 and the Development Strategy for Persons with Disabilities (2016-2025). The rehabilitation works can enable a person with disabilities to promote their social status and living standards, education, employment and business opportunities. The ministry plans to conduct the nine-month special nursing diploma course on rehabilitation, the Union Minister added. 

The ministry will step up its works for knowledge dissemination on the early detection of leprosy. After achieving a global target of reducing the prevalence of leprosy less than one per 10,000 population, the world countries including Myanmar has removed it from the list of priority diseases for elimination, according to the leprosy eradication conference held on December 13, 2018. Myanmar achieved this goal in 2003.