D.R. Congo reaches elimination at the national level
The national leprosy elimination programme of the Democratic Republic of Congo has just announced that the country has now reached the goal of elimination at the national level.
The elimination of the disease as a public health problem is defined by WHO as reaching a level below 1 case per 10,000 population. The Ministry of Health has now reported that the registered prevalence of the disease at the end of 2007 stood at 0.97 cases per 10,000 population, just within the target level, at the national level. This target has also been reached in seven out of eleven regions of the country.
This represents a remarkable achievement by the national programme in a country that for many years has been beset by civil strife, which has meant that many areas of the country were inaccessible to health workers. Logistics and the actual distribution of MDT drugs has been extremely difficult.
The D.R. Congo will now seek to consolidate and improve upon the gains achieved so far, and intensify its efforts in those provinces of the country which still have a relatively high prevalence, such as Katanga, Province Orientale, Bandundu and Equateur.