Leprosy
Situation
At the beginning of 2010, out of 122 countries considered to be endemic for leprosy, 119 have eliminated the disease as a public-health problem (defined as achieving a prevalence of less than 1 case/10 000 population). Since 1985, the reported prevalence of leprosy has been reduced by more than 90%, and more than 15 million patients have been cured. In 2010, a total of 141 countries or territories reported on leprosy to WHO: 39 from the African Region, 33 from the Region of the Americas, 10 from the South-East Asia Region, 22 from the Eastern Mediterranean Region and 37 from the Western Pacific Region. At the beginning of 2010, 244 816 new cases of leprosy were detected, and the registered prevalence was 211 928 cases.
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Trends
This chart shows trends in new-case detection reported to WHO by region during the period 2002-2009. Globally, the annual detection of new cases continued to decline, from a peak of more than 620 000 in 2002 to 244 816 in 2009.
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