Nepalgunj, Feb. 27: The TB-Leprosy programme of the International Nepal Fellowship (INF) has been found to be effective in the mid-western development region of the Kingdom.

This has been stated in the programme evaluation report,  October 1999 of a donor agency named Tear Fund U.K. The programme has been conducted in all the districts of the region since 2030  B.S.

The main objectives of the INF TB-Leprosy programme are to extend cooperation to the integrated leprosy prevention programme and the National TB programme of HMG and to provide health and social services to leprosy patients.

The project has been extending co-operation to TB and leprosy prevention programmes by running treatment centres at Nepalgunj, Jumla, Surkhet and Ghorahi of the region and by co-ordinating the works of public health officers in other districts.

The target of completely curing the TB patients in the mid-western development region was achieved one year ahead of schedule in 1999, according to the office of the project at Surkhet.

Likewise, the project believes that if the leprosy related activities is carried on in a sustainable manner, it could help eliminate the disease from the region by the year 2005.

Twelve foreigners and 200 Nepalese  including health workers and technical and administrative personnel are working under the project, according to chief of office of the project at Nepalgunj, Ram Paudel.