RI has 3rd highest rate of leprosy

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia has the third highest rate of leprosy in the world, a health official was quoted as saying by Antara yesterday.

Indonesia has 40,000 lepers registered out of its 200 million population, with an estimated 10,000 other unregistered sufferers, according to head of the Health Ministry's Leprosy Department Yamin Hasibuan.

India has the highest number of lepers and Brazil rates second. Total infection figures were unavailable.

India has a rate of 5.9 cases of leprosy per 10,000 people. Around 8.8 in every 10,000 Brazilians suffer from the disease while 1.8 in every 10,000 Indonesians are affected.

"The Indonesian government is making big efforts and by the year 2000 they should eliminate it," a World Health Organization leprosy expert who declined to be named told AFP.

Hasibuan said many sufferers were reluctant to report their leprosy to health officials.

"They only report to health officers when it is too late and they already have physical defects. The disease is in fact curable at an early stage," he said.

The World Health Organization has launched the Eliminate Leprosy 2000 program to combat the disease. In Indonesia, the Health Ministry cooperates with members and leaders of scouts to distribute information about the disease across the country.

"The girl and boy scouts are expected to help educate the public about leprosy, help identify new patients, and persuade them to go to the doctors for diagnosis and treatment," according to Endy R. Atmasulistya of the Indonesian scouts. (swe)