Vice-Minister of MOH visit Leprosy Village in Yunnan Province

January 28 is World Leprosy Day in 2007, and this is also China’s Leprosy Day. The activity theme of china’s Leprosy Day is “Reducing Leprosy Related Stigma & Building a Harmonious Society Together”. Mr. Wang Longde, Vice-Minister of Ministry of Health (MOH), Mr. Cheng Kai, Vice-Director of China Disabled People’s Federation, Mr. Pan Chun zhi, Secretary General of China Leprosy Association, Mr. Zhou Youma, Director of Ma Haide Fundation, Mr. Zhang Lie, Secretary General of National Center for Leprosy Control, China CDC (NCLC) & Prof. Zhang Guocheng, Deputy Director General of NCLC, and leaders of Yunnan Province and Kunming City visited Peoples Affected by Leprosy (PALs) in Anning Bujie Leprosy Village, Kunming City, Yunnan Province.

During the visit, Mr. Wang Longde, Vice-Director of MOH, said that leprosy control in China has achieved a dramatic improvement since the foundation of the People’s Republic of China. In China, more than 90% of counties have reached the goal of a prevalence rate below 1 case per 100,000 populations and the active leprosy cases have been reduced from more than 500,000 at early 1950s to about 6,000 by the end of 2005. Last July, the MOH published National Leprosy Control Programme (2006-2010), which will strengthen the leprosy control activities in China and push to reach the goal of elimination defined as a prevalence rate below 1 case per 100,000 populations at county level. The central government has allocated a certain amount of fund for leprosy control. At the same time, national government plans to invest 220 million Yuan for launching a national leprosy village/hospital repairing project which focuses on improving the living condition services of medical and rehabilitation care through building new & easy-to-access leprosy hospitals and renovate old facilities. In future, the MOH will strengthen the cooperation with Ministry of finance, China Disabled People’s Federation, Ministry of Civil Affairs etc. to overcome the difficulties faced by leprosy control activities.

Wang Longde said, Yunan Province is one of the high endemic provinces in China. Governments on various levels have made many efforts on prevention, treatment, rehabilitation which further contributed national leprosy control programme. The major leaders of Yunnan Province and Kunming City have been to leprosy villages/hospitals to investigate the problems that PALs faced for many times and many problems have been solved. At the same time, the medical teams of NCLC have been to Yunnan Province for many times for leprosy control and rehabilitation committed by MOH and China Disabled People’s Federation. At the same time, the leprosy control in Yunnan Province also got the support form Italy Leprosy Relief Association (AIFO) and other national and international leprosy organizations and volunteers

Wang Longde also said, many PALs are still living in leprosy villages/hospital in China now and most of them are old and disabled, even some of them can not look after themselves.

Wang Longde emphasized: although the misconceptions of leprosy, even stigma and discrimination related leprosy, still exist in communities, it is not the mainstream of the community. The theme of the World Leprosy Day in 2007 intends to advocate the right conception of leprosy to community, establish an environment of care to leprosy patients, promote social harmonious. It is believed that the stigma and discrimination related to leprosy will further decrease along with the development of science and society.

During the visit, other key persons also made speeches. Meanwhile, Mr. Wang Longde, Cheng Kai also visited the home of PALs.