BENGALURU: With 124 new cases of children with leprosy detected in the state, WHO’s global target of zero child infection by 2020 seems like a long shot. Doctors in the city treating leprosy said that it is high time the state government takes up serious measures to conduct inspection in all houses across Karnataka, to detect cases and spread awareness about the disease.

Karnataka government in 2018 launched a special drive, Sparsh Leprosy Detection Programme, under which Asha workers and male volunteers carried out inspections in houses across the state.

In the drive, carried out between April 2018 and December 2018, the volunteers found 124 new cases of children with leprosy, which is about 5.8 per cent of the total number of leprosy cases detected in the state.

Dr Swati Rajagopal, consultant, Infectious Disease, Aster CMI Hospital said: “It is a harsh reality that
children are diagnosed with this disease. Despite us having the tools, the right medicines and the
political will, we are falling short of detecting the disease in time,particularly among children.”

Some children who have been recently diagnosed already show signs of disability. Doctors suggest this calls for early detection and surveillance.

Most of the cases among children, according to volunteers working towards awareness in the state are paucibacillary (PB), indicating that these are less infectious cases. There are fewer skin lesions in PB cases of leprosy, and hence these cases are likely to be missed,” said Mastan Saheb, Field coordinator of Sumanahalli Society, a leprosy rehabilitation centre.

Plastic surgeons and dermatologists in the city claim they see cases, where children come to them with the disability. Indicating that the condition is being detected at a later stage.

“This also means that there are more cases in the community that have not come to surface. Stigma and negligence are said to be the main reasons behind this,” said dermatologist, Dr Raghavan K.