Campaign for leprosy case detection begins

Kerala is on the verge of eradicating leprosy, the prevalence of which is consistently coming down in the State, Health Minister Veena George said.

Launching the sixth phase of the fortnight-long active leprosy case detection campaign, Aswamedham 6.0, across the State on Thursday, Ms. George said that the intensive case detection drive by trained teams of health workers through home visits would ensure that all hidden and unknown cases of leprosy are picked up and treated early.

Prevalence rate down

She said the State, with its strong public health system, has been systematically bringing down the leprosy prevalence rate from 0.15 (per 10,000 population) in 2022-23 to 0.11 in 2024-25. Among all States, Kerala has the lowest number of leprosy patients on treatment.

Leprosy can be treated and fully cured and it is important that this information reaches the public so that there is no stigma associated with the disease

Launched in 2016

Aswamedham active case detection campaign was first launched by the State in 2016 to achieve the leprosy targets under UN’s Sustainable Development Goals 2030. These were reducing leprosy prevalence rate to less than 0.1/10,000 population, reducing child cases of leprosy from 1.17 /million to 0.6/ million, sustaining the rate of child cases with zero deformity and reducing Grade 2 deformity from 1.2/million to less than 1/million.

In 2018, through Aswamedham, 783 leprosy cases were newly found. The campaign was disrupted during the COVID pandemic and in 2022-23, when the campaign was re-started, 559 new cases were picked up. In 2024-25, 486 new cases were found and put on treatment.

Detection of child cases of leprosy is one major focus under the campaign and in this category too, case numbers have been going down. In 2022-23, there were 33 child cases, which had come down to 19 in 2024-25

Under the Aardram annual health survey too, health workers are conducting body checks to see if there are any hypo-pigmented patches on the skin or discolouration or any unexplained numbness on the fingers or limbs without any sensation.

NHM State Mission Director Vinay Goyal; Director of Health Services K.J. Reena; State Leprosy Officer A.L. Sheeja and other senior Health officials were present at the launch of Aswamedham.