The Final Push strategy: Questions and Answers
For centuries, often with the best possible intentions for their welfare as well as that of the wider community, leprosy patients were turned out of their homes and isolated in “leprosaria”. Children were often forcibly separated from their parents for long periods of time.
Today, throughout the world, all persons diagnosed with leprosy can be treated and cured while leading a completely normal life. Now the challenge is one of logistics and infrastructure, of determination and dedication, of joining hands and not letting go until the goal of ensuring that no further lives are devastated by this disease is achieved.
The major thrust of our efforts must focus on integrating leprosy into the general health services. Health workers at all levels must be taught the simple methods required to diagnose leprosy, and multidrug therapy (MDT) must be made available in all primary health centres to enable patients to be treated as close as possible to their homes.
While we are striving to make treatment readily available, a simultaneous priority must be to create a positive environment in which leprosy is seen in the same light as any other curable disease. Our role is to help decision-makers, health providers and communities to understand that the challenge of eliminating leprosy from their homes, schools and villages is no longer insurmountable.
We must provide them with simple information clearly communicating the message that there is no need to be afraid of leprosy, that it can be cured, and that the treatment is available free. All the techniques at our disposal must be deployed to make communities demand their right to live in a world without leprosy.
The decisive factor in this final push towards leprosy elimination, however, is the human element. We need people who show initiative and who are not afraid to come forward with new ideas; individuals who wish to be active partners in this global effort and who want safer and happier lives for themselves and their families.
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