ABSTRACT
Background: Leprosy is probably the oldest disease affl icting mankind and a public health problem for centuries. Many cases are hidden or undiagnosed, especially due to social stigma, and neglect of painless patches. Between years 2001 and 2005, during which time active surveillance for detection of leprosy was in practice, a steep fall in the prevalence rate (PR) of leprosy was observed. However, during later years, leprosy program discontinued active surveillance for detection of leprosy cases. Presently block level awareness campaign (BLAC) is a special measure undertaken in a campaign mode during September–November in priority areas, (PR > 1/10000 population), during which information, education and communication (IEC) activities and active surveillance of leprosy cases is done. Aims: To evaluate the effect of Block Level Awareness Campaign on performance indicators of national leprosy elimination program (NLEP) in Vadodara district. Methods: The campaign was carried out for 6 days in 12 talukas of Vadodara district by the district leprosy offi ce, Vadodara. Trained teams of health workers carried out information, education and communication (IEC) activity and active surveillance by undertaking house to house survey in each primary health centre (PHC) area. Suspected cases were identifi ed by the team and confi rmed clinically by medical offi cers in the primary health centre of the corresponding areas. A district nucleus team (DNT) validated these confi rmed cases. These data were compared with the district’s national leprosy eradication programme (NLEP) data for the same year, 2012 and the previous year, 2011. Results: A total of 1,574,586 persons, comprising 76%of the population surveyed, were screened for leprosy, which resulted in detection of 358 clinically confi rmed new cases of leprosy, out of which 225 (62.8%) were paucibacillary (PB) and 133 (37.2%) were multibacillary (MB) leprosy. Of these cases, 14 (4%) had deformities, and 37 (10.3%) were children. Limitations: Only 76% of the population could be covered. Histopathological confi rmation of the diagnosis was not undertaken. Because of the large number of health workers invovled, variations in their skills may have infl uenced the diagnosis of suspected cases. Conclusions: Active surveillance linked to focused block level campaigns can be useful tools to detect new hidden leprosy cases.