By 121 News Reporter
Chandigarh 28th March:-- The 29th Biennial Conference of Indian Association of Leprologists LEPCON 2014 got off to a rousing start at the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education & Research, Chandigarh. The International meet which promised to be an academic feast lived up to its pre-conference expectations and was attended not only by leprologists and dermatologists of national and international repute but also by eminent personalities in the field of medical research and public health.
The theme of the first day CME was “Sustaining Leprosy services for leprosy free world.” Ever since achieving the landmark goal of leprosy elimination at global level, there has been a growing concern regarding the need to formulate policies regarding the sustenance of leprosy services, its integration with general health services and further reducing the disease burden. Despite the success of leprosy elimination program, there are several pockets of country where the disease is still endemic and the disease transmission needs to be controlled. The day began with Dr VM Katoch (Director General ICMR & Secretary DHR, Govt of India) setting the tone of the conference by delivering a lecture on applications of newer technologies in the elimination of leprosy. Thereafter Dr Diana Lockwood (Professor at the London School of Health & Tropical Medicine), and Dr Krishnamurthy (President DFIT) spoke at length to make the audience aware of the current world-wide epidemiologic situation of leprosy and the challenges that lie ahead of us even after the elimination of leprosy has been achieved at global and national level.
The afternoon session saw interesting lectures on early diagnosis of leprosy by Dr Sengupta (Leprosy Mission Trust, New Delhi) and on difficult management issues like treating leprosy reactions and leprosy relapse by Drs Steve Walker (London School of Health & Tropical Medicine) and DM Thappa (JIPMER, Pondicherry) respectively. In addition, there were focussed talks on special scenarios like ocular leprosy and childhood leprosy. Ms. Neela Shah (Novartis, CLC) elaborated on the management of grade 2 deformity with non-surgical methods. Novartis foundation has also put up a stall wherein free splints, grip aids and free kits for the care of hands and feet are dispensed to the leprosy patients attending the conference. Later in the evening, Dr Subramaniam (NIE, Chennai) highlighted the social problems that the leprosy patients have been facing since time immemorial and what more can be done to improve their quality of life. Moreover, pertinent topics like the unusual presentations of leprosy and the need for stronger surveillance in the post elimination era were also discussed. The issue of sustainability in the leprosy services is the need of hour since at this crucial juncture, we cannot be complacent about the fact that leprosy has been eliminated. We need to sustain our efforts and take the fight to the end where we can fulfil the dream of a leprosy free world.
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