Guidelines for monitoring elimination
WHO has published guidelines for monitoring the elimination of leprosy as a public health problem, and a copy can be downloaded in Adobe™ Acrobat™ portable document format (.pdf). To view this document, the programme Acrobat Reader is required.
The guidelines are an attempt to help programme managers decide on the priority to be be afforded to the different operational elements in the elimination of leprosy and suggest what specific actions might be taken. It is expected that these guidelines will be revised according to the experience of the users and it is hoped that they will help national managers to develop guidelines of their own, adapted to their specific needs.
The aim of the management tools proposed in these guidelines is to assist decision makers in planning, implementing, monitoring and evaluating a leprosy elimination programme. These tools are based mainly on information which can be collected by health staff under field conditions. For special situations it is proposed that more sophisticated indicators should be monitored through sentinel systems.
An outline of the Guide is provided below:
Key issues to be addressed
- What is the magnitude of the leprosy problem?
- Are the resources available to address the leprosy problem?
- What kind of activities should be monitored?
- What is the impact of interventions?
Methods and procedures to measure the magnitude of leprosy
- Estimates. The only purpose of estimates is to help in planning control measures. Estimates should be derived from a large amount of information. Even if it includes some data which are not completely reliable, most of the biases are equally distributed and the degree of precision is acceptable.
- Epidemiological surveillance through essential indicators Three out of the six essential indicators are used to assess the magnitude and the intensity of the leprosy problem.
- Validity of indicators