Anambra State Commis s ioner for Health, Dr Joe
Akabuike, yesterday said the state currently has
110 identifiable cases of leprosy across its 21
local government areas.
Akabuike disclosed this in a press conference at
Awka to mark the World Leprosy Day in Anambra
State.
He said last year the state registered 95 people,
who were infected by leprosy and had been
confined, and were receiving treatment in two
rehabilitation centres in the state.
He added that fresh cases of the disease were
also identified among 15 citizens of the state,
making a total of 110 people who were currently
suffering the disease and were being catered for
in rehabilitation centres.
Akabuike stated that leprosy was one of the
oldest diseases known to man and is named
after a Norwegian doctor, Gerhard Henrik
Hansen, who debunked the prevailing notion then
that the disease was hereditary.
On how the disease could be contracted,
Akabuike said: “It is caused by bacteria and
mainly affects the skin, peripheral nerves and
mucus membrane of the upper respiratory tract.
And transmission is through droplets of coughing
and sneezing and it has an incubation period of
two years before it fully manifests.”
He said they were currently trying to create
awareness so people would know leprosy has not
totally disappeared and also help prevent the
disease from spreading.
The commissioner added that as part of
activities to mark the celebration, the ministry
and its officials would visit the two rehabilitation
centres in Nnewi and Okija to celebrate with the
inmates and to also let them know that it is no
longer a terminal disease if they routinely take
their drugs.
He assured that the disease was fully
preventable and curable, adding that people who
find any trace of the disease should visit the
TBL centres, which are in all the local
government areas of the state for free cure and
advise.
On why the disease has not been wiped out of
the country, Akabuike attributed it to the attitude
of carriers who refuse to report themselves for
fear of stigmatisation and quarantine, as some
people prefer to die with it than being identified.
http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/anambra-records-110-leprosy-cases/

Anambra adigo nma
Muaaah
In retrospect I just remembered when a useless guy from Anambra said that Abia is the bane of development in the southeast, but you see Abia has a lepers colony wheresuch cases were treated until it died off in the state.
Lesson:nobody is perfect.

Methink it will be better to sensitise people about it so that we can tackle it like ebola.
Unlike our brothers in south west who prefer to hid their own to avoid shame from the international community which will do them in in the long run.

Pls hu is anambra governor?