Eradicate leprosy like Ebola, FG urged

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The Funds Manager, the Leprosy Mission Nigeria, Mr. Terver Anyor, has urged the Federal Government and other stakeholders to eradicate leprosy in the country.

Appealing to the government to eradicate leprosy, as it did for the Ebola Virus Disease, Anyor called for more research into vaccines that could prevent the spread of the leprosy virus, especially in adults.

The PMN boos, who spoke on the sidelines of a seminar for media practitioners in Ilorin, Kwara State, described leprosy as a debilitating health condition.

He also cautioned against discrimination against people with leprosy.

Anyor, who said that Kano State had the highest cases of leprosy in the country in 2013, with 305 affected persons, noted that Zamfara and Jigawa states recorded 260 and 212 cases respectively.

Bayelsa State, he said, had three reported cases, making it the state with the least record within the period.

Calling for early detection programmes for the disease in the country, Anyor said, “At present, there is no single case of reported leprosy in Europe because the governments of the countries on the continent fought the disease tenaciously. But, in Nigeria, although the government pays the salaries of workers, it does not give regular subventions to us again.

“Since 1993, the government only released funds for the control of the disease about five times. We are talking of eradicating the disease and not controlling it. We need to muster all efforts as we did in the case of polio. We also need to eradicate leprosy in this country.”

Source: Punch