EUROPE/ITALY - SUNDAY 25 JANUARY: 51ST WORLD DAY OF SOLIDARITY WITH LEPERS. THURSDAY 22 FIDES DOSSIER WITH INFORMATION AND TESTIMONY

Tuesday, 20 January 2004

Rome (Fides Service ) – Sunday 25th January is the 51st World Day of Solidarity with Lepers, an initiative started in 1954 by Raoul Follereau, who was determined to eliminate not only leprosy but all forms of exclusion and injustice. Catholic missionaries the world over assist people suffering from leprosy and run programmes of prevention and cure. The World Day aims at increasing awareness of the tragic situation of suffering an exclusion of so many people in the world because of leprosy. Associations work hard to overcome prejudice and fear of contagion.
An analysis of the latest information available shows an increase in new cases of leprosy in the period 1996 to 2000 precisely when most countries had reached the WHO objective. A first control of global statistics presents a drop in new cases of leprosy after 2001, but a deeper analysis demonstrates that many countries have lowered their guard and dismantled programmes to fight leprosy, so that concretely they have no information on the situation of the disease. Substantially the risk of transmission of the disease is stable in most of the South of the world.
In 2002 world wide the number of registered cases receiving treatment was 534.311 and the number of new cases was 620.672. According to the Church’s Annual Book of Statistics the Church runs 678 leprosy centres and assists 817.321 patients.
2002 figures issued by WHO regarding new cases of leprosy were as follows: 48.248 in Africa; 39.939 in America; 4.665 in the Middle East; 520.632 cases in South East Asia; 7.154 in the Far East and Pacific, 34 in Europe.
On the occasion of World Day of Solidarity with Lepers on 22 January Fides will issue a Dossier of Information un dossier on the subject. (AP) (Fides Service 20/1/2004; lines 27 - words: 312)


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