{"id":2285,"date":"2026-10-11T01:12:41","date_gmt":"2026-10-11T01:12:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/health.myinstants39.com\/india-struggles-to-curb-leprosy-transmission\/"},"modified":"2026-10-11T01:12:41","modified_gmt":"2026-10-11T01:12:41","slug":"india-struggles-to-curb-leprosy-transmission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/healthcare.hibisports.com\/?p=2285","title":{"rendered":"India struggles to curb leprosy transmission"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"schemaDiv\" id=\"schemaDiv\">\n<p>India\u2019s leprosy programme is falling short of several projections set for 2025-26. The country reported 91,783 new leprosy cases in 2025-26, 41.2% higher than the projected 65,000. New cases among children were 91.6% above the projection while the rate of Grade 2 Disability (G2D) among new cases was 1.34 per million, against a projected one per million.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-picture \">\n<div class=\"picture zoom-img \"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/theme\/images\/th-online\/1x1_spacer.png\" data-src-template=\"https:\/\/th-i.thgim.com\/public\/data\/brv4ub\/article71559498.ece\/alternates\/FREE_1200\/Leprosy%20Chart%2012x.png\" data-original=\"https:\/\/th-i.thgim.com\/public\/data\/brv4ub\/article71559498.ece\/alternates\/FREE_1200\/Leprosy%20Chart%2012x.png\" alt=\"\" class=\" lazy\" width=\"100%\" height=\"100%\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>India\u2019s national prevalence rate was 0.56 cases per 10,000 population at the end of March 2026, below the elimination target of a prevalence rate below one case per 10,000.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-picture \">\n<div class=\"picture zoom-img \"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/theme\/images\/th-online\/1x1_spacer.png\" data-src-template=\"https:\/\/th-i.thgim.com\/public\/data\/8l3580\/article71559529.ece\/alternates\/FREE_1200\/Leprosy%20chart%2022x%201.png\" data-original=\"https:\/\/th-i.thgim.com\/public\/data\/8l3580\/article71559529.ece\/alternates\/FREE_1200\/Leprosy%20chart%2022x%201.png\" alt=\"\" class=\" lazy\" width=\"100%\" height=\"100%\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>But the burden remains concentrated geographically. Chhattisgarh had the highest prevalence among States\/UTs at 1.66 cases per 10,000 population, followed by Jharkhand (1.51), Chandigarh (1.49), Odisha (1.25) and Maharashtra (1.14).<\/p>\n<div class=\"inline_embed article-block-item\">\n<div class=\"flourish-embed flourish-map\" data-src=\"visualisation\/30474466\">[wpcc-script src=&#8221;https:\/\/public.flourish.studio\/resources\/embed.js&#8221; type=&#8221;9350a1c2f0e0b6d90ed75298-text\/javascript&#8221;]<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/public.flourish.studio\/visualisation\/30474466\/thumbnail\" width=\"100%\" alt=\"map visualization\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>At the district level, 14.8% of districts had a prevalence rate above one case per 10,000 in 2025-26, down from 18.6% in 2013-14 but 114 districts still remained above the programme\u2019s elimination target. Moreover, only 148 districts have provisionally achieved interruption of transmission, against a projected 300.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-picture \">\n<div class=\"picture zoom-img \"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/theme\/images\/th-online\/1x1_spacer.png\" data-src-template=\"https:\/\/th-i.thgim.com\/public\/data\/zgxxkh\/article71559545.ece\/alternates\/FREE_1200\/_leprosy%20chart%2042x%201.png\" data-original=\"https:\/\/th-i.thgim.com\/public\/data\/zgxxkh\/article71559545.ece\/alternates\/FREE_1200\/_leprosy%20chart%2042x%201.png\" alt=\"\" class=\" lazy\" width=\"100%\" height=\"100%\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>G2D was also concentrated in a few States\/UTs. Chandigarh, Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Odisha together accounted for 42.5% of the 1,945 G2D cases reported in 2025-26. Chandigarh recorded the highest rate at 13.54 per million, followed by Delhi (11.53) and Chhattisgarh (7.87).<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-picture \">\n<div class=\"picture zoom-img \"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/theme\/images\/th-online\/1x1_spacer.png\" data-src-template=\"https:\/\/th-i.thgim.com\/public\/data\/hmz29c\/article71559549.ece\/alternates\/FREE_1200\/leprosy%20chart%2052x.png\" data-original=\"https:\/\/th-i.thgim.com\/public\/data\/hmz29c\/article71559549.ece\/alternates\/FREE_1200\/leprosy%20chart%2052x.png\" alt=\"\" class=\" lazy\" width=\"100%\" height=\"100%\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Single-Dose Rifampicin Post-Exposure Prophylaxis (SDR PEP), a preventive dose given to people who have been in contact with a leprosy patient, was administered to 91.2% of the 16.94 lakh eligible contacts in 2025-26, up from 71.4% of the 6.48 lakh in 2019-20.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-picture \">\n<div class=\"picture zoom-img \"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/theme\/images\/th-online\/1x1_spacer.png\" data-src-template=\"https:\/\/th-i.thgim.com\/public\/data\/yf0yc0\/article71559606.ece\/alternates\/FREE_1200\/Leprosy%20chart%2062x%201.png\" data-original=\"https:\/\/th-i.thgim.com\/public\/data\/yf0yc0\/article71559606.ece\/alternates\/FREE_1200\/Leprosy%20chart%2062x%201.png\" alt=\"\" class=\" lazy\" width=\"100%\" height=\"100%\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><i>Source: National Leprosy Eradication Programme (2025-26) and National Strategic Plan and Roadmap for Leprosy 2023-2027<\/i><\/p>\n<div class=\"also-read print-hide\" data-ga-label=\"AlsoReadArticle\">\n<div class=\"element\">\n<div class=\"title\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBreak the chain: On leprosy in India<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>India continues to report more leprosy cases, childhood infections and disability than projected, highlighting the need to interrupt transmissions<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2701,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthcare.hibisports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthcare.hibisports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthcare.hibisports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthcare.hibisports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthcare.hibisports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/healthcare.hibisports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2285\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthcare.hibisports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthcare.hibisports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthcare.hibisports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthcare.hibisports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}