This year’s report to the UN General Assembly by the UN Special Rapporteur for leprosy, Beatriz Miranda Galarza, focuses on bottlenecks in the leprosy drug supply chain and their impact on affected persons. The Special Rapporteur’s starting point is that […]
ILEP Technical Commission commentary The Global Leprosy Update for 2024 has been published by the WHO Global Leprosy Programme in the Weekly Epidemiological Review (WER) and updated in the Global Health Observatory. This much-awaited report has a mix of encouraging […]
This Roundtable, hosted by Africa CDC in partnership with Anesvad Foundation, CBM Global and Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, was held on 24 January in Kigali, Rwanda directly after the International Conference on NTD Research. Thank you to Maneesh Philip […]
This month, COR-NTD and the African Research Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases (ARNTD) hosted the second International Conference on NTD Research (InCORNTD) in Kigali, Rwanda in collaboration with the Ministry of Health. Over 500 researchers, academics, and policymakers met during […]
The annual conference of the Neglected Tropical Disease NGO Network (NNN) has just finished in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Once again, there was strong representation from the leprosy world including from ILEP members, seven of which contributed to sponsorship of the […]
Commentary: Dr Paul Saunderson The WHO Global Leprosy Programme has published the Global Leprosy Update for 2023, available on the WHO website. The report focuses on the new Leprosy Elimination Framework, published during 2023. The Framework consists of three distinct […]
In June, Beatriz Miranda Galarza, the UN Special Rapporteur on the elimination of discrimination against persons affected by leprosy (Hansen’s disease) and their family members, presented her first report to the UN Human Rights Council. The report describes the impact […]
ILEP member The Leprosy Mission (TLM) attended the United Nations’ 17th Conference of State Parties (COSP) to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability (CRPD) this month. The COSP presents an opportunity to speak about the rights of […]
The ILEP Secretariat was in Geneva during the seventy-seventh World Health Assembly, held in the last week of May. The Assembly is the peak event for WHO each year. Big-picture outcomes this year were the adoption of WHO’s strategy or […]
COR-NTD is the Coalition for Operational Research on NTDs, one of the programs of the Task Force for Global Health. This year COR-NTD has decided to host regional events instead of its usual large annual event in the USA. The […]
The annual conference of the Neglected Tropical Disease NGO Network (NNN) was held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania from 19-21 September. There was strong representation from the leprosy world. More than 100 attendees had connections with leprosy organisations, including ILEP […]
The WHO Global Leprosy Programme has published the Global Leprosy Update for 2022 in the Weekly Epidemiological Review and the Global Health Observatory. Because of the wealth of data presented, the annual Update is eagerly awaited by the leprosy community. […]
In a consultation event in Manila this month, World Health Organization released its new technical guidance Interruption of transmission and elimination of leprosy disease. This is the culmination of three years of work by a WHO task force which involved […]
The UN Special Rapporteur on discrimination against persons affected by leprosy and their family members, Alice Cruz, gave her final report to the Human Rights Council this month. The report is a fine reflection on the achievements of her mandate […]
More than 800 people registered for the first WHO global meeting on skin NTDs (Geneva: 27-31 March). 50% listed leprosy as a disease interest, and many ILEP members were represented among the 300+ in-person participants. The number, quality and range […]
WHO has published A compendium of indicators for monitoring and evaluating progress of the road map for neglected tropical diseases 2021–2030. The compendium provides a comprehensive set of indicators to track the global effort to control and eliminate NTDs by […]
At the International Leprosy Symposium in January, Brent Morgan shared the experience of ILEP member The Leprosy Mission (TLM) in working towards the repeal of all laws that discriminate against persons affected by leprosy. These laws exist in at least […]
At the International Leprosy Symposium at the Vatican in January, Dr Benedict Quao shared his experiences on participating in the implementation of the Global Partnership for Zero Leprosy (GPZL) country model in Ghana, Uganda and Nigeria. Dr Quao is National […]
WHO NTDs Department has recently launched another companion document to the NTDs Road map 2021-2030: A rationale for continued investment in tackling neglected tropical diseases. This new publication was written to motivate investment to reduce the burden of NTDs for […]
UN Special Rapporteur Alice Cruz made her second report to the United Nations General Assembly this month. The topic is the limitations and challenges around national legal protections of the rights of persons affected by leprosy and their family members. […]
The annual conference of the Neglected Tropical Disease NGO Network (NNN) was held from 13-15 September in a hybrid format: face-to-face in Kathmandu, Nepal, and online. The Leprosy Mission Nepal was the official host of the Conference. There was strong […]
The WHO Global Leprosy Programme has published the Global Leprosy Update for 2021 in the Weekly Epidemiological Review and the Global Health Observatory. The reported data shows further progress in spite of the COVID pandemic, whose dampening effects on routine […]
Meeting in person again after almost three years was a deeply positive experience. ILEP member The Leprosy Mission welcomed to Brentford, in west London, the ILEP Technical Commission (ITC), the ILEP Advisory Panel, and the ILEP Members’ Assembly. Each of […]
This month, UN Special Rapporteur Alice Cruz delivered her annual report to the UN Human Rights Council. The report, entitled Right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health for persons affected by leprosy and their family members, […]
The WHO Skin NTDs Framework was launched this month. A companion document to the WHO NTDs Road map 2021-2030, the Framework centres on integrated approaches to the control and management of nine NTDs, including leprosy, that involve effects on the […]
The International Leprosy Congress (ILC) is an important event held in various parts of the world to bring together key stakeholders in the field of leprosy to discuss new knowledge and share experiences. This year’s Congress (Hyderabad, India, 8-11 November) […]
ILEP member staff were among the 7,000 participants at the Global Disability Summit (GDS) this month, the world’s biggest event focused on disability inclusion. A vital feature of the GDS is the commitments made by states, NGOs, companies and others, […]
ILEP is pleased to announce its new strategy for 2021-2025. The strategy was developed through consultation in early 2021 with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders. This was followed by a steady process of determining priorities and the […]
The ILEP Technical Commission (ITC) has produced a commentary on the recently published Global Leprosy Update for 2020. (WHO, Weekly Epidemiological Record, 2021; 96: 421-444). The authors are Paul Saunderson (ITC), Joseph Chukwu (ITC) and Tom Hambridge (Dept of Public […]
In October, UN Special Rapporteur Alice Cruz makes her first report to the UN General Assembly. Her topic is the laws, regulations and norms that continue to dehumanise persons affected by leprosy and their family members. She has also produced […]
‘What gets measured gets done’. The recently published Monitoring and evaluation framework is another of the companion documents that goes alongside the new WHO 2021-2030 NTDs Roadmap. It is written not only for countries but also for implementing partners, like […]
The overall goal of the WHO Global Leprosy Strategy 2021-2030 is the elimination of leprosy, which the strategy defines as ‘interruption of transmission/absence of disease’. This is a significant change. Earlier, the overall WHO goal was ‘elimination of leprosy as […]
In June 2020 the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the elimination of discrimination against persons affected by leprosy and their family members was extended for a further term, and we are delighted that Alice Cruz has continued in the […]
What it is The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is the mechanism by which the UN Human Rights Council assesses the human rights record of every UN member country, over a five-year cycle. The purpose is to improve the human rights […]
In 2018 ILEP gained funding from the Leprosy Research Initiative (LRI) for a study entitled ‘Promoting inclusion where it matters most: Building resilience in individuals and families’. Though leprosy and leprosy-related stigma or discrimination can have a major impact on […]
This statement is also available in French, Spanish and Portuguese. BACKGROUND The involvement of communities and persons affected is not a new concept in primary health care and disease programs. Human rights-based approaches to NTDs, including leprosy, emphasise that any […]
The new WHO global leprosy strategy, entitled ‘Towards Zero Leprosy’, was released on 15th April. This is one of the disease-specific strategies underpinning the WHO Road map for NTDs 2021–2030. The strategy presents the basic direction, goals, challenges and strategic […]
ILEP recently contributed to discussions by the CRPD Committee (Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities) about the right to work. The Committee is developing a binding General Comment on Article 27 of the Convention. Article 27 is to […]
The WHO Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) Roadmap 2021-2030 was launched at the end of January after a long period of international consultation. There is an abbreviated version of the Roadmap, but we recommend the full version as well as the […]
Uniting to Combat NTDs was established after the signing of the London Declaration on NTDs in 2012. During 2020, as part of a total review of structure and strategy, Uniting expanded its focus from 10 to all 20 NTDs. One […]