KARACHI, Nov 22: There is a need to thoroughly screen all the Afghan refugees for leprosy as they might be brining in the bacteria with them.

This was stated by the federal health ministry’s honorary advisor on Leprosy and chief of Marie Adelaide Leprosy Centre, Dr Ruth Pfau, while talking to Dawn on Thursday.

She said that according to the WHO standards of less than 1 active patient in 10,000 population, the disease had been controlled in Pakistan in 1996 but it had not yet been eliminated.

She said that the disease had not yet been controlled in Afghanistan and with around 3 million Afghan refugees in the country; it was necessary that they were thoroughly screened so that they did not pose any danger of spreading the disease in the country.

She said that Dr Thomas Koenig, who was based in Peshawar and carrying out the leprosy control activities in Afghanistan, had returned to Germany after the recent Afghan conflict, but now that things seemed to have calmed down, he wanted to come back to resume work, but was facing some difficulties in obtaining visa.

She said that his presence in Peshawar would be helpful carrying out anti-leprosy drive among the refugees and in the area. She said that she had asked the German Ambassador, Dr Christoph Brummer, who visited the MALC on Wednesday, if he could help. She said that Dr Brummer had ensured that he would try to help in any way that he could.

Dr Brummer, accompanied by his wife and the Consular Attache Marcus Haas, was first briefed on the MALC and later went around various wards of the 80-bedded hospital and also spoke to some of the patients.

MALC was established in a slum area off McLeod Road near the railway line in 1956. It was named after a noble Frenchwoman, Marie Adelaide, a founder of the Daughters of the Heart of Mary, an order of the catholic nuns with its headquarters in Paris, France. The work on leprosy was started in Pakistan by these sisters who responded to the request of the then Archbishop of Karachi to help the leprosy patients living in the slum.

A Mexican pharmacist, Sister Berenice Vargas, who is still associated with MALC, alongwith an American educationist Sister Mary Doyle started the work in 1956 in the slum where overflowing sewage mixed with garbage and huge sewer rats feasted on the limbs of the patients at night. Soon Dr Anne Rocha and Dr Zarina Fazlebhoy joined MALC.

A visiting German journalist witnessed the work and printed the story in his newspaper in Germany which caught attention of the German Leprosy Relief Association (GLRA) that has been the major donor of MALC for over 45 years now. The rest of the expenses are met by the private donations, and by the government.

With German funding, MALC shifted to a small clinic in Sadar in 1962, That clinic has now turned into a four-storied hospital building and three-storied administration building housing a pharmacy, wards and a training centre.

MALC also maintains Home for the Handicapped in Sultanabad, Manghopir, housing over 50 leprosy patients. Majority of the inmates are burnt-out cases with heavy deformities making them unable to work. The Home provides for all their needs including medical attention.

Though the disease is found all over the country, the majority of the cases are reported in Sindh. In the year 2000 nearly 55 of the patients under treatment and nearly 68 per cent of the new cases detected during the year originated in the province — the reason could be that Karachi receives a high number of migratory population and probably also has a better reporting mechanism.

Dr Ruth Pfau, who has been associated with MALC for over 40 years now

She said that still today every minute in the world a new patient falls victim to leprosy and out of them , three in a day in Pakistan. She said that Pakistan was believed to harbour around 20,000 infected individuals who would develop the first leprosy sign in the next 10, possibly 20 years. She said that once detected the disease was effectively cured with the Multi Drug Therapy (MDT).

She said that majority of new patients — 73 per cent in Sindh and 59 per cent in Balochistan — last year reported voluntarily. Among the newly detected cases 15 per cent were deformed patients and around 12 per cent were children.

She said the data indicated that danger of leprosy was not yet over and transmission was continuing and not all the patients were yet diagnosed in the first stage of the disease.