Acting Regional Director, WHO Western Pacific Region, Dr Zszuzanna Jakab, national programme managers, persons affected by leprosy, members of the TAG-Leprosy and other experts, representatives of partner institutions,
Good morning and welcome, and my utmost thanks for your presence today, at what marks an important juncture in our quest to achieve zero leprosy disease, zero leprosy disability, and zero leprosy stigma and discrimination – the targets of our Global Leprosy Strategy.
To achieve zero leprosy disease, a specific geographic area or country must:
First, interrupt leprosy transmission, which requires no new child cases for five consecutive years;
And second, eliminate leprosy disease, which means no new adult cases for an additional three consecutive years.
This marks a decisive shift forward from elimination as a public health problem, which was achieved globally in the year 2000.
In the decades since – and again in 2021 – around 95% of leprosy cases were reported from just 23 global priority countries.
Of the total new cases detected, 71% were from the WHO South-East Asia Region, 14% were from the WHO Americas Region, 10% were from the WHO African Region, and the remaining cases were from the WHO Eastern Mediterranean, Western Pacific and European Regions.
Notably, just three countries globally – Brazil, India and Indonesia – accounted for more than 75% of all new cases.
However, concurrent to this, more than 30 countries globally have reported zero new cases over the past five years, and 14 countries have reported zero child cases.
Even accounting for COVID-19-related disruptions, today, many countries and areas – especially island countries – are on the cusp of elimination or will be looking towards it soon.
And let us not forget: Even in high-endemic countries, many districts, provinces and states are no longer reporting new cases.
In other words, the burden has evolved, and so must we.
Today, I am therefore pleased to launch WHO’s new Technical Guidance on interruption of leprosy transmission and elimination of this ancient disease.
The guidance contains four tools:
First, a leprosy elimination framework, which outlines key indicators and milestones for when an area or country moves from one phase of elimination to the next.
Second, a leprosy elimination monitoring tool, which will help programme managers monitor progress across different phases of elimination and determine when to accelerate forward.
Third, a leprosy programme and transmission assessment tool that can be used by programme managers to assess the quality and status of leprosy programmes and services.
And fourth, a leprosy elimination dossier that will help programme managers collect the evidence required to be verified by WHO for interruption of leprosy transmission and ultimately, elimination.
In addition to launching the guidance, over the course of this meeting, we aim to ensure that you can put it to work, with a focus on updating national operational plans, while also sharing experiences and lessons learned.
Over the last few years, we have witnessed several major developments, not least:
The shift to a preventive approach through chemoprophylaxis;
The shift to our zero leprosy targets;
And the disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic, which we continue to recover from.
On each, you will no doubt have much to share.
But let us also carefully consider the last-mile challenges that island countries and other countries close to elimination continue to face.
Inadequate funds. Weak health workforce capacity. Competing public health priorities.
And of course, continued stigma and discrimination, reflected in at least 115 discriminatory laws globally.
On each of these and more, I urge you to identify and integrate best practices and future directions into your updated national operational plans, accelerating progress on each of our zero leprosy targets.
Because let us agree: With today’s tools, success is a question of choice – a question that together we must answer.
I close by congratulating Maldives from the South-East Asia Region and Jordan from the Eastern Mediterranean Region for embarking on sub-national and national verification, respectively.
I wish you an engaging, informative and productive meeting, and assure you of WHO’s ongoing support, for a world with zero leprosy disease, zero leprosy disability, and zero leprosy stigma and discrimination.
Thank you.