Taking a serious view of the fact that the number of new case detection of leprosy has not shown a notable decline in the country, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has decided to develop projects on certain priority areas such as studies related to NLEP, Epidemiological studies, Basic research, Clinical Research and Drug resistance studies.

Leprosy continues to be a public health problem though declared as eliminated from the country. The number of new case detection has not shown a comparable decline despite a rapid reduction in the prevalence of leprosy. There are pockets of endemicity in the country which need to be taken care of. Therefore, secretary DHR and Director General, ICMR have taken steps to develop projects on certain priority areas to address these issues, ICMR sources said.

In the studies related to NLEP, the projects will be developed on Health Systems Research & Operational Research on integration issues; studies evaluating current IEC strategies and increasing community awareness; and studies addressing psychosocial issues, formulation of newer approaches to reduce the stigma, for encouraging early detection and completion of MDT.

In the area of epidemiological studies, projects will be developed on Estimating trends/prevalence/incidence in India with special emphasis on biological reasons and genetics, behavioural and social factors; transmission dynamics of leprosy to identify sources/genotypes, its presence in soil and water and establish chain of transmission in endemic pockets; and study addressing issues related to changing profile of disease.

In Basic Research, projects will be developed on Studies to understand the host-parasite genomic interaction and pathogenesis of the disease; Basic Immunology; and Translational research including newer technology such for detection of M leprae from environment.

In the Clinical - Research area, the study will focus on Clinical - Laboratory studies on complications of leprosy and its management. And in the drug resistance studies, the ICMR proposes to develop projects on studies on drug resistance & relapse as well as on reaction and use of second line drugs for resistant and relapse cases.