Clarification: doctors did not accuse Indian authorities of massaging leprosy data

Editor—Members of the panel which held discussions at the Press Club of India on 6 May 2005 did not accuse the authorities of the Indian state of massaging leprosy figures, as reported by Mudur.¹

The title of the article does not reflect the proceedings of the press conference, where J P Muliyil and I participated, along with others. The thrust of the presentation was to bring to the attention of the community at large in India through the media that leprosy as a disease and its consequences—such as deformities—have been controlled to a notable extent, but the new cases seen along with complications such as visible deformity, as well as highly deficient socioeconomic rehabilitation, should continue to cause concern to the public and the authorities concerned.

I was quoted as saying that leprosy will remain a public health problem even after the prevalence drops to one per 10 000. This is not a correct version of what I said. What I said was that given the current definition of elimination of leprosy as a prevalence of less than one per 10 000, with India's current population of over 110 crores [1 crore = 10 million], the country will continue to have over 1 lakh [1 lakh = 100 000] patients a year. Will they not be an issue of public health concern?