China warns against rebound in leprosy cases
Pastor Dale Morgan
China warns against rebound in leprosy cases*
24 Jan 2008 03:08:39 GMT
Source: Reuters
BEIJING, Jan 24 (Reuters) - China is recording an annual average of more
than 1,600 new leprosy cases and will spend $30 million this year to
renovate leprosy villages which are home to thousands of people, the
Health Ministry said on Thursday.
Those diagnosed with leprosy in China were once exiled forcibly to
remote "leper colonies", a practice which ended in the 1980s when a
hugely successful multi-drug therapy was introduced.
The country now has just a little more than 6,000 sufferers, drastically
down from the estimated 500,000 in 1949 when the Communists took power,
the official Health News said.
"But every year there are still more than 1,600 new leprosy cases, and
there are still people suffering relapses," the Health Ministry-run
newspaper added.
There were about 100,000 survivors who had been permanently disfigured
and some 20,000 lived in leprosy villages, it said.
The government had earmarked 220 million yuan ($30.42 million) this year
to rebuild or relocate more than 100 of these villages, the report added.
The villages remain partly because the patients are unable to rebuild
their lives after being institutionalised for decades.
Leprosy is a curable disease of the skin and nerves but its victims have
long been ostracised by society worldwide. ($1=7.231 Yuan) (Reporting by
Ben Blanchard; Editing by Nick Macfie)