LEPROSY CONCERNS FOR ESWATINI

mfanukhona@times.co.sz

MBABANE – Coronavirus is dangerous; but how would you react if you were to be infected with leprosy?

Leprosy was once feared as a highly contagious and devastating disease that can cripple hands and feet, cause paralysis and blindness.
Patients living with it were isolated from others as the disease caused skin cancer, nerve damage and muscle weakness.
It looks like there are people who are living with leprosy in the country.

The Ministry of Health’s Annual Budget Performance Report for the year under review indicates that there were leprosy cases countrywide.
The ministry stated that it had noted with concern the re-emergence of infectious diseases like leprosy, which was last seen in Eswatini in the early 1990s.
As a result, the ministry has engaged the Deputy Prime Minister ’s Office on the possibility of enrolling these patients on the disability grant.
Leprosy is an infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae, an acid-fast, rod-shaped bacillus.

The disease mainly affects the skin, the peripheral nerves, mucosa of the upper respiratory tract, and the eyes.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), leprosy is curable and treatment in the early stages can prevent disability.
Lizzie Nkosi, the Minister of Health, stated that the conditions under which the patients lived were deplorable.
In August 2017, she said, a new case of leprosy was diagnosed in Eswatini.

The minister said it was investigated and managed in line with the recommendations of the WHO.
Following this new case, Nkosi mentioned that the old leprosy cases countrywide were revisited.
“Leprosy patients were found to be living in poor conditions and are often victims of stigma due to their condition,” the minister stated in the report, which was tabled in Parliament this week.

Prevalence not known

In an interview, Dr. Vusi Magagula, the Director of Health Services, said the ministry has not yet measured leprosy’s prevalence rate, but it existed in the country.
Dr. Magagula mentioned that the coronavirus and HIV were deadlier than leprosy in that the latter could take 20 years in the body to manifest and cause nerve damage, which could then result in the crippling of hands and feet.

The director explained that the coronavirus could infect a lot of people within a short period of time.
He said it did not, however, mean that they would not take the threat posed by leprosy seriously.
nation need to prepare
“We have to get prepared for leprosy even though the coronavirus and HIV are deadlier because they can wipe out the nation in a short period of time,” he said.

He said the ministry was vigilant on the ground to ensure effectiveness of early treatment.
According to the report, training of Eswatini healthcare workers on leprosy surveillance would be held in the second quarter of 2020.
Leprosy is one of the oldest diseases in recorded history as the first known written reference to leprosy is from around 600 BC.
It must be said that it is common in many countries, especially those with tropical or subtropical climates.

Prevention of contact with droplets from nasal and other secretions from patients with untreated M. leprae infection is currently the most effective way to avoid the disease.
Treatment of patients with appropriate antibiotics stops the person from spreading the disease.
At the moment, there isn’t a specific vaccine for leprosy, according to a network of doctors in the US. However, WHO says it is curable with multidrug therapy (MDT).

There is also a vaccine against tuberculosis, called the BCG (Bacillus Calmette-Guérin) vaccine.
This vaccine can offer some protection against leprosy.
For the record, healthcare professionals say this is because the organism that causes leprosy is like the one that causes tuberculosis.

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