The government has set a goal to make Nepal completely leprosy-free country by 2020.

Accordingly, preparation is underway to celebrate World Leprosy Day across the nation on Sunday under the main theme ' Let's do timely treatment of leprosy to avoid disability'.

The World Leprosy Day is observed on the last Sunday of January every year.

A data shows that 200,000 new leprosy patients are found in the world every year and 3,000 in Nepal. Although Nepal was declared as leprosy-free country in 2065 BS, it was not relevant.

A total of 175,000 leprosy patients are receiving treatment across the world, while 2,500 such patients are undergoing treatment in Nepal. At a time when number of leprosy patients is decreasing slowly in the world, number of such patients has not been found to decrease in Nepal since 2010.

The data shows that 3,100 leprosy patients in Nepal and 210,000 patients across the world cured the disease.

Deputy Director of the Department of Health Services and Chief of the Leprosy Control Division, Dr Basudev Pandey, said that number of leprosy patients is high in South Asian countries. India has 137,000 leprosy patients, he added.

Pandey said that number of leprosy patients in Nepal is high in Banke and Bardiya districts. He said that the government has a target to make remaining 18 districts—Achham, Mugu, Surkhet, Banke, Bardiya, Kapilvastu, Nawalparasi, Chitwan, Parsa, Bara, Rautahat, Sarlahi, Mahottari, Dhanusha, Siraha, Sunsari, Morang and Jhapa leprosy-free districts by 2020.

Dr G A Hansen of Norway in 1873 discovered leprosy disease caused due to the mycobacterium leprae. So it is also known as 'Hansen disease'. RSS