Japanese-founded Jalma centre for leprosy treatment stands strong after 4 decades of helping lepers

Just a few hundred metres from the Taj Mahal, there's another monument to love that few people know about or few tourists would care to visit. The Japanese-founded Jalma centre for leprosy treatment has completed more than four decades of service, treating thousands of ostracised patients, lepers, and has through research and investigations succeeded in bringing down the incidence of the debilitating disease. Now run by the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR), it stands as a monument to love between the two countries.

'The total number of leprosy cases in the country has declined. People come early for treatment and respond well to the drugs and disease-management programme. But the chief area of concern remains the rate of transmission reflected through the number of new cases, which should eventually fall,' a Jalma official told IANS.India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, laid the foundation stone of the Jalma centre near the Taj Mahal in December 1963. Japanese doctors ran the hospital till 1976, when ICMR took over and developed it as a key research centre. (Read: Leprosy: Shun the stigma, embrace cure)

Today, it is one of the most modern, hi-tech research centres focussing on leprosy and TB. It has successfully developed new generation immunological and molecular diagnostic tools and methods and evolved the mapping of TB through DNA printing which can deliver a test report in just one day against up to two weeks earlier.The Jalma centre has built a formidable reputation through research and investigations in several critical areas like AIDS, drug metabolism, drug resistance and leprosy, to name just a few. The results would help contain the incidence of leprosy and other dreadful diseases. (Read: Need to shed stigma associated with leprosy: WHO)

It was renamed the National Jalma Institute of Leprosy and Mycobacterial Diseases in 2005 to reflect its broader research areas. The Institute has a major thrust on leprosy (40 percent), tuberculosis and other mycobacteriosis (40 percent), HIV (10 percent) and filariasis (10 percent).Under ICMR the scientists of the Institute have continued to contribute on almost all aspects of leprosy, several cutting edge areas of tuberculosis ( DNA fingerprinting methods, drug resistance) and selected areas of HIV-AIDS and has now made forays into related problems like filariasis.

Alongside the modern Jalma hospital, there is a small village of lepers built by Gandhians in 1960 with 57 rooms where 120 victims of leprosy have been living in a world of their own. (Read: Is India the leprosy capital of the world?)

Wondering what leprosy is? Here are some facts about the disease:

Fact #1: India leads the world in the number of leprosy cases

To be more specific, we have fifty eight percent of the global leprosy load. Currently 1,34,752 new cases are detected in India in the first quarter of 2013. The number of women afflicted by the disease is a lot more than the number of men and over thirteen thousand children have been found to be afflicted with this disease. Read more about the number of leprosy cases in India.

Fact #2: Leprosy is one of the oldest diseases in the world

Leprosy is one of the oldest and most stigmatised diseases the world over. It is also known as Hansen's Disease named after the scientist who discovered it Armauer Hansen. It is a chronic infectious disease that primarily affects the nervous system and numbs the extremities in the exposed parts of the body like the hands, feet and face.

Fact #3: Is caused by a bacteria

The disease is caused by a rod-shaped bacterium known as Mycobacterium leprae. The most common symptom is the occurrence of paled patches on skin without sensitivity.

Fact #4: It is not easily transmitted

It is believed to be transmitted via droplets from the nose and mouth. But unlike other infectious diseases it spreads only with repeated and close contact with the infected person, and only untreated patients pose a risk. If an infected person seeks treatment, from the very first dose itself the amount of bacteria in the person reduces drastically.

Fact #5: 95% humans are immune to the leprosy bacterium

In India ninety to ninety five per cent people are naturally immune to the disease, hence leprosy is not highly infectious.

Fact #6: The symptoms are unique for every type of leprosy

The symptoms of the condition include patches on the skin that are insensitive to touch or any sensation. The classic sign is that the patch will be devoid of hair or sweat and will not feel any heat, cold or pin pricks. These symptoms remain constant for the following types of the disease.

According to WHO the condition is classified into to two

Paucibacillary: Where no bacteria are detected in the skin lesions

Multibacillary: Where there are more than five lesions on the person's body that are positive for the presence of bacteria.

Fact #7: Diagnosis of leprosy is simple

The diagnosis of leprosy is fairly simple. When a person visits his/her doctor a physical examination is usually more than enough to diagnose the person. According to the WHO, if a person visits a doctor in an endemic area with the classic symptoms of leprosy, he should be considered as suffering from the disease. In case a doctor does want to confirm the diagnosis he/she may advice a skin smear to be done. This is a procedure where a sample is taken from the patient and tested for the presence of the bacterium. This is usually advised in rare cases.

Fact #8 : It is curable and treatment is free

Leprosy is curable through Multi-Drug Therapy (MDT) and in India it is available free of cost at any government health centre. MDT is a combination of three drugs, i.e. clofazimine, rifampicin and dapsone which are taken over the course of 6-24 months.

Fact #9: Untreated leprosy can cause severe deformities

If left untreated leprosy can cause the fingers and toes to deform and form a claw shape by curling inward. Leprosy also affects the eyes, making it difficult for the patient to blink, therefore causing blindness. It can also cause permanent ulcers and infections in the hands and feet which often occur when cuts, bruises and burns are ignored because the person does not feel any pain.

Fact # 10: Early diagnosis is the key to avoiding disabilities

Early diagnosis and treatment with Multi-Drug Therapy (MDT) prevents permanent disabilities by curing the disease before it causes deformities. It is also one of the best ways to eliminate it as a public threat.

With inputs from: IANS/By Brij Khandelwal

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