Theme: 

How we should develop post corona-virus pandemic leprosy services

Word limit: 600 words

Deadline: July 4th
By Jayashree P Kunju,
CEO , IBAS GLOBAL and Member on board, Lepra Society

The outbreak of epidemics has caused severe disruptions to the delivery of health services of a
nation, particularly those related to serving the needs of its marginalised communities. Leprosy,
which is classified as one of the ‘Neglected Tropical Diseases’ falls in the category of those diseases
that were least served during the pandemic period, for several reasons. Over 3 million out of a
population of 1.3 billion in India are affected by leprosy – most of them are cured but still live with
the aftermath of the disease including limbs that are left debilitated due to the disease. Many of
these individuals live in rural parts of the country where access to diagnosis, treatment and post-
cure care for leprosy is limited due to geographical spread and poor access to public health
dispensaries or centres.

In preparation for the day when we are done with the pandemic, we need to look for ways to put
our focus back on the people who are affected by leprosy. We need to find innovative and effective
ways to develop leprosy services to serve patients living in remote areas with least access to
healthcare support. The specific needs of people affected by leprosy includes testing for the disease,
psychological counselling, economic rehabilitation, physiotherapy, medication, ulcer care, training in
self-care, administering of medicines, active case finding surveys and reconstructive surgery. The
question is – how can we create ‘value’ in servicing the needs of the people? While the
governmental system does take care of part of the requirements – for example, Indian medical
system is augmented by Accredited Social Healthcare Activists, we need to see how far we can take a
dollar spent on the work of rehabilitation? An ideal system of taking care of the work on hand could
be the use of ‘Champions’ – a term used to denote a person affected by leprosy, who is looking out
for others similarly affected in order to provide peer support and fellowship. The Global Leprosy
Champions group, created in September 2018 by Arikonam Mohan, a gentleman affected and cured
of leprosy is an informal association of people affected by leprosy from all parts of the world has
over 100 members from 20 countries, working to provide social awareness about leprosy and acting
as change makers in supporting one other to deal with discriminatory behaviors from general
public. The main activities of the group include:

1. Social awareness

2. Be the voice of the people

3. Be the role model, and inspire others

Champions understand the disease and its ramifications. Ideally they could be trained in delivering
some of the services that do not call for medical qualification. Champions would do well partnering
government in helping assess the needs of various groups of people. An advantage of services
rendered by champions is that they have the trust of people affected by leprosy. Involvement of
champions in the work of post pandemic leprosy services will perhaps lead to better understanding
among the various groups of stakeholders The need may arise to train these individuals and enable
them to support one another.
About me:

I am a Chartered Accountant and CEO of IBAS Global, a business that provides coaching and
consulting for corporates in the finance and management domain. I am also the Vice Chair of Lepra
Society and a member of board of IDEA International. Both these agencies work for the cause of
leprosy. I contracted leprosy when I was in my final year of education as a chartered accountant. My
special focus is on removal of stigma among people.