New Delhi, May 7: India is getting ready to declare itself a leprosy-free nation by the end of this year.

This does not mean there will be no new leprosy cases after 2005, just that the prevalence of the disease will come down to less than one per 10,000 people each year.

However, health activists have challenged the government’s contention saying the authorities are painting an over-optimistic picture and there are no signs on the ground to suggest that eradication of leprosy is round the corner.

?It appears that the overenthusiasm to reach elimination of leprosy has to a great extent clouded the minds of many a health professional. A prevalence of one leprosy case per 10,000 population, reached artificially through artful manipulation of definition, is of no epidemiological significance,? said Dr Jayaprakash Muliyil, a leprologist working with the Christian Medical College, Vellore.

?(The) bulk of evidence (shows) that new cases continue to emerge in the country unabated and at least 10,000 new individuals become disabled annually due to the disease,? he said.

The government claims that 2003-04 started with 3.44 lakh leprosy cases and ended with 2.66 lakh cases, showing a decline of 0.78 lakh.

According to health authorities, another crucial indicator is the number of new cases each year. New cases showed a decline from 4.4 lakh during 2002-2003 to 3.3.lakh in 2003-04.

However, the Leprosy Mission, a non-profit organisation working on the field, says 40 lakh new cases of leprosy were detected last year.

Muliyil said the detection mechanism has many loopholes, the most important being that many cases are not reported because of the social stigma still attached to leprosy patients.

Last month, a 60-year-old man killed his 25-year-old son in a village in Uttar Pradesh because the boy was infected with leprosy.

Very often, even if a patient comes for treatment, he does not give the correct address for fear that the health authorities may track down the case to the village, Muliyil added. This would lead to social boycott of the family and the patient.

In such circumstances, the Leprosy Mission workers say, it is difficult to get a correct picture of the actual number of cases.

According to volunteers, leprosy patients are treated every three months. After a patient has been given three months of treatment, his name figures in the government’s register as a cured case. The system of reporting leprosy in India is faulty, not because the authorities want to hide numbers, but because of the lack of awareness among people about the disease and the associated social stigma. On paper, India may soon declare it is a leprosy-free country, but this will not reflect the actual ground situation.