A total of 1683 leprosy patients had been reported from Sri Lanka last year (2018), Leprosy Control Programme Director Dr.Champa J. Aluthweera said.
According to Dr. Aluthweera, 41 percent of the new leprosy cases are from the Western Province and the percentage of patients who seek medical treatment after six months of appearing symptoms has gone up to 30 percent. She was addressing a health seminar held at Health Promotion Bureau in Colombo yesterday.
According to Dr. Aluthweera, during the past decade (10 years) 2000 patients had been reported annually. In last year (2018) new patients had been identified from 26 districts in the country. The number of patients detected from the Western Province was 691. In 2017, the highest number of leprosy patients, 306 had been reported from the Colombo district.
According to Consultant doctors, with early diagnosis and completing treatment regimes on time patients could be cured without any deformities.
Hypo-pigmented, erythematous, anesthesia or hyperesthesthesia skin lesions, kin nodules and lumps, numbness, clawing of fingers, wrist drop, foot drop, painless ounds / ulcersin hands and feet and ocular manifestations are some of the symptoms of Leprosy, they said.
