January 26, 2025, is World Leprosy Day. As we mark this day, I ask you to turn your thoughts towards all those suffering from leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease.
Leprosy is a disease as old as the Bible. For much of its long history its cause was unknown. Once mistaken for a hereditary condition or thought of as divine punishment, leprosy is caused by a type of bacteria called Mycobacterium leprae or, less commonly, Mycobacterium lepromatosis, and is only mildly infectious.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the partnership between The Nippon Foundation, of which I am chairman, our sister organization, Sasakawa Health Foundation, and the World Health Organization (WHO) in the fight against leprosy. Over these five decades, great progress has been made against the disease.
With the introduction of WHO-recommended multidrug therapy (MDT) in the early 1980s, leprosy became easier to treat. Based on the impact of MDT, a World Health Assembly resolution in 1991 set the goal of eliminating leprosy as a public health problem at the global level by the year 2000, with elimination defined as a disease prevalence of less than 1 case per 10,000 population. This was duly achieved, and by 2010, all but a handful of countries had eliminated leprosy as a public health problem at the national level. The number of leprosy patients worldwide has fallen from around 5 million in the 1980s to less than 200,000 new cases reported each year today.
But leprosy still exists. Partly because of the disruption caused by the recent COVID-19 pandemic, there are people in some countries without access to desperately needed treatment. There are people living with disabilities caused by leprosy who need lifelong support, and many people affected by leprosy and their families still face discrimination and marginalization based on old stereotypes and superstitions.
Fear of discrimination makes some people reluctant to seek treatment. Others are misdiagnosed because health workers do not recognize the symptoms of leprosy, and their condition worsens. Still others do not receive appropriate treatment, especially for painful and potentially fatal leprosy reactions.
We must work harder to ensure that health systems are able to deal appropriately with each patient, and that health workers and the general public are aware of leprosy. We must not allow neglect, ignorance or indifference to get in the way.
On World Leprosy Day 2025, let's unite under the WHO's banner "Towards Zero Leprosy" and work together to end discrimination and ensure that everyone affected by leprosy receives the treatment and support they need. We must not forget leprosy.
