Stanley Medical College and Hospital in Chennai observed World Leprosy Day!!
On Thursday 30th January 2025, the popular Stanley Medical College and Hospital or SMCH located in north Chennai was busier than usual. Here, an awareness programme about World Leprosy Day was conducted. The event witnessed the presence of Chennai Collector Rashmi Siddharth Zagde. It is known that leprosy is a chronic disease caused by bacteria Mycobacterium leprae. Various symptoms of leprosy are skin patches with loss of pigmentation, skin patches with reduced or absent sensations, numbness or tingling sensation in arms, legs and muscle weakness etc.
Yesterday, the head of dermatology and leprosy in SMCH, Dr. Vijaya Bhaskar, spoke about how in India the prevalence of leprosy was 0.45percent and in TN it was 0.3percent. In the year 2024 alone, a total of 75384 new leprosy cases were identified across India. It is worth mentioning that in TN alone as many as2434 leprosy cases were detected and 38 new cases were diagnosed in SMCH and were treated with multi drug therapy drugs. It has been brought to light by a press release that till date 3000 patients are being treated at the outpatient department of SMCH.
Works carried out at SMCH in treating leprosy:
It is noteworthy that at SMCH in Chennai management of resistant lepra reactions is carried out. Many advanced techniques such as growth factor administration of platelet rich plasma, aurohemotherapy, insulin dressing etc are used to manage tropic ulcers due to leprosy.
In addition to these mentioned above, every week disability prevention and medical rehabilitation programmes etc were also organised. To rule out impending nerve paralysis etc, a high resolution ultrasonography is done for the patients.
The target for WHO or World Health organisation is Towards Zero Leprosy and strategy and theme for 2015 is Unite, Act Eliminate. This was according to the Chennai collector.
