Training for officers under NLEP held in Kohima

DIMAPUR — A one-day training for district programme officers under the National Leprosy Eradication Programme (NLEP) was conducted in the conference hall of the Directorate of Health and Family Welfare (DHFW) in Kohima on June 6.

State leprosy consultant, Dr. SK Dey, and state leprosy officer, Dr. Ruokuohelie Rutsa, were the resource persons of the training programme, which was attended by representatives from all the districts, an update stated.

NLEP mission director, Dr. Akuo Sorhie, in her speech, presented a detailed overview of the leprosy programme with special emphasis on Nation Strategic Plan (NSP) and also highlighted the roadmap for leprosy 2023-2024.

The target of NSP is to execute interruption of transmission of leprosy and achieve zero indigenous leprosy cases by 2027, she said.

Dr. Sorhie also emphasised on the need to remain vigilant and not to be complacent since there are active cases of leprosy in Nagaland including few indigenous cases.

The mission director stressed on the need to accelerate new case findings, leprosy case detection and focused leprosy campaigns.

She further shared on the need for aggressive contact tracing of index cases and proper preventive measures like post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) to be administered at the right time.

State leprosy officer, Dr. Ruokuohelie Rutsa, made a powerpoint presentation on the overview of leprosy programme and the state’s performance in the last five years.

As per statistics, 122 cases of leprosy was detected in Nagaland over the last five years with 90 (74%) imported cases and 32 (26%) indigenous cases.

The programme concluded with vote of thanks delivered by Hokito (NMS).