30 January 2005	Sunday	19 Zilhaj 1425

KARACHI, Jan. 29: The Marie Adelaide Leprosy Centre (MALC) has successfully controlled leprosy, a crippling disease, in the country in 1996 and now it has launched the new project of controlling tuberculosis and prevention of blindness.

This was stated by MALC chief, Dr Ruth Pfau, who is also federal government's Adviser on leprosy, at a press conference held at Karachi Press Club on Saturday to announce the schedule of various events to mark the 52nd World Leprosy Day.

She said that the "Patients' Day" and "Visitors' Day" would be observed at the centre on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively, while the main event of the Leprosy Day had been organized at the FTC Auditorium on Feb 13. A walk to create awareness about leprosy would be held at a later date.

She said that according to WHO guidelines, if prevalence of the disease showed less than one person in 10,000 people, then it meant that the disease was controlled. That level was reached in 1996 but still 800 new cases were being detected annually in Pakistan.

She pointed out that the MALC, working in coordination with the government, had a setup of 175 clinics across the country. It has a training institute for medical and paramedical staff.

She estimated that there were more than 25,000 people thought to be infected with leprosy bacteria. She said that the bacteria had a long incubation period which could stretch over a period of 40 years, so the leprosy control measures would have to be continued for two generations or a few more decades.

Dr Pfau, who has been working with the MALC for more than 45 years now, said that major chunk of the MALC budget of over Rs125 million came from overseas donations, particularly the German Leprosy Relief Association. She said that as the disease had now been controlled and the MALC had already taken up a new project, the traditional donors were finding it difficult to continue providing funds for non-leprosy project.