Leprosy
I happened to visit Marie Adelaide laprosy center as a part of my curriculum requirement in the dermatology rotation. This visit to the center has not been of much interest to some of the groups who went there before us so naturally we were not looking forward to the visit too. But as it turned out once again liking and disliking is a completely relative term that for me it was an interesting insight into one of the least known disease even to the people of medical pofession. Which is quite sad actually. We were shown around the center and its different wards, pharmacy, laboratory and the out patient clinics. Here i would like to jot down some of the new things that i learned there about the disease and also the efort to cure that disease.
--The journey of leprosy conrol began in Pakistan in 1956 in Karachi under the guidance of a young Maxican sister. She was later joined by a young German lady doctor named Ruth Pfau. This effort later took shape of the National Leprosy Control programme
--The program succeded in reaching its primary goal of controlling leprosy in Pakistan in 1996 when the prevelance of the disease diclined to less than 1 active case in 10,000 population.
--The program is part of the Provincial Health services. It is staffed by 887 workers and operates 175 field units, mostly accomodated in existing health units. There are in addition 6 specialized leprosy hospitals and five general hospitals hospitals for indoor facilities for leprosy patients.
--The national leprosy training institute in karachi is conducting various programmes for training technicians in managing leprosy.
--The annual budget for the programme is estimated at 110 million rupees. The funds are mainly generated by the help of foreign donors like German Leprosy Tuberculosis Relif Association and the rest is generated by means within Pakistan. The programme is entirely financed by donations.
--There are a total of 50,300 registereed patients.
--Leprosy control doesn't end at providing medical treatment to the patients. As the disease has crippling effects on the social and economic life of the patient thus rehabilitation has to be provided in terms of other supportive services and social catering. 10,988 registered patients have been identified as being in need of one or the other social service. 1609 families have so far been rehabilitated.
--The center provides all the services to its patients free of cost.
--Doctors are encouraged to refer all the suspected cases to the leprosy center for furthur evaluation.
Inspite of all these things there are some other bitter facts that reminded me of thre amount of neglect that the Government has to offer to such voluntary services. We were expecting the center to be located in a building which atleast looks like a hospital. But to our astonishment it was one crumbling structure ready to fall on its own located next to a junk yard full of billowing smoke and a busy road on the other side. It gave a picture of living quartesr in a typical karachi slum. Short of beds patients had to be kept on stratures. Such were the conditions in the center but even then i laud the efforts of the staff there whose morale was sky high and they were all intent at providing as much relief as was in their capacity to the sufering and ailing.
Leprosy is curable but attitudes are not. Our general public and even our doctors have insulting attitudes towards patients of this ailment. We must keep in mind that this ws not patient's choice to be infected with this disease, if it were to be so than they would have chosen rather to die than be rebuked upon by the members of their families and society.
The people at the Marie Adelaide Leprosy Center are doing a comendable job and thus deserve our moral and material support. Everyone must chip in his part so that in the end it becomes a country wide effort.
Furthur information can be had from the following address. malcnlcp[at]cyber[dot]net[dot]pk or mobile 0300-210-3949.
I happened to visit Marie Adelaide laprosy center as a part of my curriculum requirement in the dermatology rotation. This visit to the center has not been of much interest to some of the groups who went there before us so naturally we were not looking forward to the visit too. But as it turned out once again liking and disliking is a completely relative term that for me it was an interesting insight into one of the least known disease even to the people of medical pofession. Which is quite sad actually. We were shown around the center and its different wards, pharmacy, laboratory and the out patient clinics. Here i would like to jot down some of the new things that i learned there about the disease and also the efort to cure that disease.
--The journey of leprosy conrol began in Pakistan in 1956 in Karachi under the guidance of a young Maxican sister. She was later joined by a young German lady doctor named Ruth Pfau. This effort later took shape of the National Leprosy Control programme
--The program succeded in reaching its primary goal of controlling leprosy in Pakistan in 1996 when the prevelance of the disease diclined to less than 1 active case in 10,000 population.
--The program is part of the Provincial Health services. It is staffed by 887 workers and operates 175 field units, mostly accomodated in existing health units. There are in addition 6 specialized leprosy hospitals and five general hospitals hospitals for indoor facilities for leprosy patients.
--The national leprosy training institute in karachi is conducting various programmes for training technicians in managing leprosy.
--The annual budget for the programme is estimated at 110 million rupees. The funds are mainly generated by the help of foreign donors like German Leprosy Tuberculosis Relif Association and the rest is generated by means within Pakistan. The programme is entirely financed by donations.
--There are a total of 50,300 registereed patients.
--Leprosy control doesn't end at providing medical treatment to the patients. As the disease has crippling effects on the social and economic life of the patient thus rehabilitation has to be provided in terms of other supportive services and social catering. 10,988 registered patients have been identified as being in need of one or the other social service. 1609 families have so far been rehabilitated.
--The center provides all the services to its patients free of cost.
--Doctors are encouraged to refer all the suspected cases to the leprosy center for furthur evaluation.
Inspite of all these things there are some other bitter facts that reminded me of thre amount of neglect that the Government has to offer to such voluntary services. We were expecting the center to be located in a building which atleast looks like a hospital. But to our astonishment it was one crumbling structure ready to fall on its own located next to a junk yard full of billowing smoke and a busy road on the other side. It gave a picture of living quartesr in a typical karachi slum. Short of beds patients had to be kept on stratures. Such were the conditions in the center but even then i laud the efforts of the staff there whose morale was sky high and they were all intent at providing as much relief as was in their capacity to the sufering and ailing.
Leprosy is curable but attitudes are not. Our general public and even our doctors have insulting attitudes towards patients of this ailment. We must keep in mind that this ws not patient's choice to be infected with this disease, if it were to be so than they would have chosen rather to die than be rebuked upon by the members of their families and society.
The people at the Marie Adelaide Leprosy Center are doing a comendable job and thus deserve our moral and material support. Everyone must chip in his part so that in the end it becomes a country wide effort.
Furthur information can be had from the following address. malcnlcp[at]cyber[dot]net[dot]pk or mobile 0300-210-3949.
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