KATHMANDU, Jan. 25: Prime Minister Lokendra Bahadur Chand, on the occasion of the fiftieth World Leprosy Day, has heartily greeted all the brothers and sisters inflicted with leprosy and expressed the confidence that the target set by HMG for the elimination of leprosy from Nepal would be achieved in time and we would get rid for ever the disease that has remained a public health problem.

In his message on the occasion, Prime Minister Chand has said that the leprosy patients are an integral members of the society and what they aspire for is affection and goodwill, and added that superstition, wrong notion and the tendency to hide the disease will have adverse impact on its diagnosis and treatment.

Therefore, it is the duty of one and all to encourage these kinds of patients to go for treatment in time, he added.

Stating that with the adoption of the multi-drug therapy, leprosy has become an ordinary disease, he said that as it is completely curable, the situation of becoming deformed and disabled did not exist any more.

With the adoption of the multi-drug therapy the number of leprosy patients in the country has declined dramatically, and many patients have recovered from it and are living normal life in the society, he added.

Dr. Upendra Devkota, in his message on the occasion, has said that negative conception on leprosy is prevailing in the society and it is still believed that it is the result of the misdeed of the previous birth, and therefore we are utterly confused.

Minister Devkota disclosed that HMG has adopted the policy imparting training to health workers, diagnosing and providing treatment of the disease through multi-drug therapy, regularly monitoring and evaluating the programmes conducted in this regard.

Policy has also been adopted to provide treatment to the patients at their doorsteps through Integrated Health Services, he added.

Secretary at the Ministry of Health Mahendra Nath Aryal, in his message, has stated that HMG has been providing treatment to the leprosy patients free of cost in all the 75 districts of the Kingdom.