China issues plan for eliminating leprosy

BEIJING -- China has issued a plan for the comprehensive elimination of leprosy, according to the national administration of disease prevention and control on Sunday.

According to the plan jointly issued by the administration and other departments, by 2030, no county-level regions in China will be left with a leprosy prevalence higher than 1 per 100,000.

Leprosy is a chronical infectious disease that seriously endangers people's health, with severe cases resulting in facial malformation and hand-foot impairment.

China had implemented a plan from 2011 to 2020 and made progress in eliminating the threat of leprosy. Official data showed that by the end of 2020, the number of leprosy patients in China had halved compared with a decade ago.

To further reduce the disease prevalence, the new plan (2024-2030) calls for coordinated measures to be implemented across the country in a three-tiered manner, targeting disease transmission, case fluctuation and rebounce, and early warning.

The plan also sets out main tasks including detection of patients, targeted treatment, and prevention of malformation and impairment.