Anti-leprosy campaign in west

An anti-leprosy campaign has been conducted in western regions of the Central African Republic (CAR) with the aim of educating the population about preliminary signs of leprosy. "The campaign was aimed at drawing the attention of the population to the preliminary signs of leprosy, of which they are often unaware," Dr Nicolas Felicien Dologuele, coordinator of the national anti-leprosy programme, told IRIN on Thursday. The campaign, which ran from 4-14 September, included the training of nurses and medical assistants in caring for lepers. CAR is among the 15 nations in the world where the rate of leprosy is still very high. "CAR is a hyper-endemic zone," said Dologuele. He said any country whose rate of infection was beyond one infected person per 10,000 inhabitants was deemed hyper-endemic. CAR has 1.24 infected people per 10,000 inhabitants, or the equivalent of 455 out of a total national population of 3.5 million. According to Dologuele, among the 455 infected, 347 are multi-bacillary cases "which represent the most infectious form of leprosy". The CAR government - in partnership with the World Health Organisation, Association d'Aide aux Lepreux Emmaus Suisse and Alliance Mondiale de Lutte contre la Lepre - has distributed drugs to fight leprosy in all hospitals and health centres in the country. "Drugs against leprosy are available all over the country and distributed for free," said Dologuele. [For more information on the global effort to eradicate leprosy]