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Contact Tracing is crucial to stopping leprosy
If we are to end the transmission of leprosy by 2035, contact tracing will be a key tactic to find undiagnosed leprosy and reduce the risk of contacts developing leprosy.
In recent years we have heard about contact tracing in relation to stopping the spread of Covid-19. The same is true for leprosy. If we are to end the transmission of leprosy by 2035, contact tracing will be a key tactic to find undiagnosed leprosy and reduce the risk of contacts to develop leprosy.
With your faithful support funding is provided to support contact tracing preventative programmes in Bangladesh, D.R. Congo, Indonesia, and Nepal. These are called ‘PEP’ projects as they target households and communities with post-exposure to leprosy and administer a Prophylaxis treatment to prevent the disease.
The people most likely to develop leprosy are those who are living with, or close to, an untreated infectious person. Mobile health clinics and skin camps are facilitated to seek out undiagnosed leprosy along with community awareness programmes in high leprosy endemic communities.
When we diagnose a person affected by leprosy, we work with them to create a list of their household and community contacts who can then be screened for symptoms of leprosy. Contacts who are not diagnosed with leprosy can receive a single dose of preventative medicine in the form of an antibiotic, rifampicin.
Studies have shown that PEP treatment using single-dose-rifampicin can significantly reduce new cases of leprosy. Further clinical trials are being developed for testing other antibiotic treatments for improved effectiveness.
Thanks to you, in NZ-supported projects during 2023, there were 5,425 people identified as contacts of people diagnosed with leprosy and they received the single-dose rifampicin treatment.
You may remember the recent story about Abish from Bangladesh shared with you earlier this year. Abish contracted leprosy at a very young age and thankfully was diagnosed and received treatment through a Leprosy Mission mobile health clinic in his village. Contact tracing, diagnosis and treatment of leprosy or provision of preventative treatment in his community will further support reducing transmission towards the ultimate goal of No Child with Leprosy by 2035.
