Resurgence of Leprosy - Increasing Trends in Kollam District, Kerala
Abstract
In the efforts to reach the target of elimination of leprosy by the end of year 2005, many measures were being pushed by the leprosy agencies of India with the support of WHO and Global Alliance for Elimination of Leprosy (GAEL).7One such strategy was the Final push of leprosy as strategy was initiated by WHO in November, 1999. The objective was to achieve the elimination target in all countries by end of 2005.
New cases continue to occur in significant numbers, probably the result of a persisting pool of infection. Instead of being intensified, leprosy program has slowed down and is being diluted. With the motive of achieving the elimination targets, corners are being cut. These includes shortage of staff, no active surveillance, integration of leprosy into general medical services, leprosy workers becoming multipurpose workers and diverted to newer priorities such as HIV and TB, and reduction of funds.10 If this situation is allowed to continue, resurgence of a leprosy epidemic is imminent.
When publishing with Kerala Medicial Journal (KMJ), authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal. Work includes the material submitted for publication and any other related material submitted to KMJ. In the event that KMJ does not publish said work, the author(s) will be so notified and all rights assigned hereunder will revert to the author(s).
The assignment of rights to KMJ includes but is not expressly limited to rights to edit, publish, reproduce, distribute copies, include in indexes or search databases in print, electronic, or other media, whether or not in use at the time of execution of this agreement.
Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
The author(s) hereby represents and warrants that they are sole author(s) of the work, that all authors have participated in and agree with the content and conclusions of the work, that the work is original, and does not infringe upon any copyright, propriety, or personal right of any third party, and that no part of it nor any work based on substantially similar data has been submitted to another publication.
