Nigeria Records 3,000 New Cases of Leprosy Annually – FG

The federal government has said that Nigeria records about 3,000 new cases of leprosy annually, with children accounting for about 10% of the new cases recorded.

This was made known by the Health Minister, Professor Isaac Adewole at the World Leprosy Day briefing which was organised by The Leprosy Mission, Nigeria. According to him, the ancient disease cannot be said to be over as deficiency of knowledge about the signs and symptoms is lacking as even most health workers do not know the traits.

Professor Adewole disclosed that the federal government has developed a national policy on strategic plan from 2016-2020 which is committed to working with partners towards achieving the Bangkok commitment of 2013 which stipulates that the disease should be addressed by government of highly endemic countries.

 It is expected that at the end of 2020, visible and recorded achievements will include “aiming to reach 0.1 case per million population, zero grade 2 disabilities among new child leprosy cases and all states to report less than 1% case.”

The national director of TLM, Dr Moses Onoh, said the Mission is out to create awareness about the disease so that people can understand it’s signs, symptoms, prevention as well as treatment, based on the standard of the World Health Organisation, WHO.