Leprosy Control by a People's Program: “A New Concept in Technology Transfer”

Abstract

Leprosy is a major health hazard in tropical countries as it also is in China. All programs for the control of this disease have been based on the cheap, effective, and low-toxicity antileprosy drug Dapsone (DDS), available since the early 1950s. The emphasis has been on early detection and regularity of treatment, which has to be maintained for several years, if not a lifetime. Despite the availability of what might be rightly termed the “magic bullet,” World Health Organization (WHO) figures demonstrate that leprosy has not been controlled in most countries and is generally on the increase. Blame has been ascribed to the patients for hiding the disease and for irregularity of treatment. Emphasis has now shifted to high-technology research to evolve more expensive and much more difficult multidrug regimens and an antileprosy vaccine.

China, isolated from the rest of the world and using only simple DDS therapy, but ensuring its use through its barefoot doctor approach, has shown a reduction of leprosy cases from 500,000 to 100,000 in the past three decades. The author suggests that the world, including WHO, should learn from the experience of China rather than try to impose its own low effective and more expensive high-technology approach on this country.