According to Dr. Ashok Agarwal, Managing Trustee of the NLR India Foundation (until No Leprosy Remains), leprosy is one of the most overlooked tropical diseases (NTDs). It is among the twenty most communicable, chronic, debilitating, and disfiguring disorders, with over 60% occurring in India. As a result, India bears an enormous burden to combat leprosy.

He further said that in 2016, NLR attempted a single dosage of rifampicin as a preventive remedy for the first time in India, and the results were so encouraging that the government adopted it as a nationwide programme, which has helped to minimise the incidence of new infections. 

COVID-19 pandemic has adversely affected the detection of new cases by decreasing to about 40% in the preceding 2 years inflicting delays in detection, remedy, and prevention, in addition to the accelerated danger of lifelong disability. Even though multidrug therapy (MDT) is freely available in the country, the current challenges in treating leprosy include resentment of patients to seek medical help and treatment due to stigma and discrimination and the problem of acquiring single-dose rifampicin preventive therapy.

On the 23rd Foundation Day, the NLR acknowledged its contribution in not only reducing leprosy cases, but also developing four different self-care models that work in the community, at the PSE level, the third model combines leprosy care with lymphatic filariasis, and the fourth model, developed in West Bengal, is reaching out to thousands of people affected in their homes through ASHA. NLR is striving toward a vision of zero leprosy cases, and we are guided by three worldwide strategy pillars: zero transmission, zero impairment, and zero exclusion. (ETHealthWorld, 27, 2022)