KARACHI, Jan 21: Doctors of the Marie Adelaide Leprosy Centre (MALC) on Tuesday urged the masses not to hate and avoid fully-cured leprosy patients, and to try to rehabilitate them so that they were fully integrated into the society.
Speaking at a Press Conference at the Karachi Press Club to launch the 50th World Leprosy Week, they said that once cured fully, leprosy patients were no threat and should not be segregated from the mainstream.
They stressed the need to create and spread awareness among the masses in general and among doctors in particular so that the disease could be detected and controlled effectively at an early stage.
They said that the MALC was using the multi-drug therapy which was very effective. They said that leprosy was not a hereditary disease but a contagious one.
They said that MALC, in collaboration with the government departments, through its over 170 centres had been working in Sindh, Balochistan, the NWFP, the Northern Areas and Azad Kashmir for over 40 years, while in the Punjab and the Hazar divisions (NWFP) it had been collaborating with a sister NGO, the Aid to Leprosy Patients.
They said that the disease had been controlled in the country in 1996, which according to the World Health Organization (WHO) standard meant that the magnitude of leprosy had gone down to less than one leprosy patient per 10,000 people.
They said there were still nearly 20,000 estimated leprosy cases in the country which were in the incubation period and the MALC was improving the existing leprosy control activities by maintaining quality services for detection and treatment of new leprosy cases.
They said that 12,000 persons were already disabled by the disease and were in need of care, while over 5,500 persons required some form of rehabilitation.
They said a small group of nuns named the Daughters of the Heart of Mary and associated with Marie Adelaide of France started a small dispensary made of wooden crates to serve a colony of leprosy patients at Mcleod Road in 1956. A Mexican pharmacist Sister Berenice Vargas, who was among the pioneers and still working with the MALC, used to wade through the overflowing sewage of “Mcleod Road Lepers Colony, and arrange medicines, bandages, food, blankets for them through the donations from the Red Cross and UNICEF.
The small dispensary, they said, had now expanded and the MALC now was housed in a seven-storey complex. Federal government’s adviser on Leprosy Dr Ruth Pfau who has been associated with the MALC for over 40 years now, Dr Ashfaq Ali Khan and Mr Lobo spoke on the occasion.
Various programmes are being organized during the week. A walk is being organized to start from the Mazar of the Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah on Wednesday morning (9 am). Thursday will be celebrated as the patients’ day at the MALC.
The main function of the week will be organized to celebrate the World Leprosy Day at the Regent Plaza Hotel on Saturday morning (10am). The visitors’ day is being celebrated at the MALC on Monday (Jan 27). A few other programmes will also be organized later.