World Leprosy Day: Over 200 Samples Ready For Diagnosis

As part of events marking this year’s World Leprosy Day (WLD), which was commemorated last Sunday across the globe, the Rivers State Tuberculosis, Buruli Ulcer, and Leprosy (TBL) Control Programme has taken samples of over 200 suspected cases of leprosy in the State.
Making this known in an exclusive interview, the TBL Control Programme Manager, Dr Victor Oris-Onyiri, said the samples were got from Elelenwo, where sensitisation on leprosy was carried out as part of events marking the 2020 WLD.
According to him, all the samples will be diagnosed and those found positive will be placed on treatment immediately.
Dr Oris-Onyiri explained that the sensitisation activity carried out in Elelenwo last Monday, tagged “Community Skin Camp”, was an “opportunity for us to invite members of the community to assemble at the Town Hall, where we carried out massive sensitisation exercise”.
According to him, “so many people were excited about the programme and so the turnout was huge”, adding that “the samples taken are presumptive cases that we think are leprosy. We will examine them, and diagnosis will be made by experts”.
He stated further that the exercise was in accordance with the policy of the TBL control programme early case finding/detection.
“It is important that we find these cases early. If we find them early, they are not going to develop the features that are commonly seen, such as upper amputation of digits”, he said.
The TBL program Manager continued that signs of Leprosy infection include hypo-pigmented skin patch, or lighter skin patch, which often looks like eczema.

Sogbeba Dokubo