New Delhi, Sept 6: In line with the vision of Shri Narendra Modi, Hon’ble Prime Minister of India to eradicate Leprosy from India, Shri J P Nadda, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare reviewed the National Leprosy Eradication Programme and pursuant to that, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has launched the biggest Leprosy Case Detection Campaign (LCDC) in the country on 5th September 2016 across 149 districts of 19 states/UTs. This fortnight-long campaign will cover 1656 blocks/urban areas of these districts and screen a total of 32 crore people for leprosy. For this purpose, 297604 teams comprising of one lady ASHA worker and one male volunteer each would visit every house in their allotted area and screen all the family members for leprosy.
The states and UTs covered in this campaign are Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Nagaland, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Chandigarh, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Delhi and Lakshadweep. The districts having a prevalence rate of more than one case per 10,000 population in any of the last three years have been included in this campaign.
The Leprosy Case Detection Campaign is a unique initiative of its kind in the world where each and every member of the targeted population will be examined by the search team constituted of one male and one female volunteer at household level. House to house visits will be done by the search team as per the micro plan prepared for the local area to detect hidden and undetected leprosy cases. The objective of the campaign is the early detection of leprosy in affected persons so that they can be saved from physical disability and deformity by providing them timely treatment and thus also halting the transmission of disease at the community level.
The first LCDC was launched during March-April 2016 in 50 districts of 7 states namely Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh wherein a population of about 6.8 crores was covered. During this campaign 65427 suspected cases were identified out of which 4120 were later confirmed.
