Leprosy elimination – a public-health success story

It has been more than 20 years that Novartis and the Novartis Foundation for Sustainable Development have been continuously engaged in the fight against leprosy. More than 14 million people have been cured of leprosy since 1985, over 4.5 million of them with drugs provided free of charge by Novartis (since 2000). Two decades ago, leprosy was a public health problem in 122 countries. Today the disease has been eliminated as a public health problem (i.e. reaching a prevalence rate of less than one case per 10,000 inhabitants) from all but 3 countries (Brazil, Nepal and Timor Leste).

Since 1986, the Novartis Foundation has been actively involved in leprosy field programs in Asia, Africa and Latin America, working closely with local health ministries, WHO and NGOs. This was a natural extension of Novartis’ role in the development of high-quality multidrug therapy (MDT). The Foundation provided MDT free of charge to these programs prior to the start of the MDT drug donation program.

• The Novartis Foundation pioneered the use of social marketing in leprosy to generate and meet demand for leprosy diagnosis and treatment. Social marketing includes communications and promotion measures as well as making effective treatment readily accessible and reducing the total costs for seeking treatment.
• The Foundation supported countries like Brazil and Sri Lanka to integrate leprosy services into the general health services - to make treatment more accessible.
• In 1989, the Foundation set up the Comprehensive Leprosy Care Programme (CLCP) in India to make disability care services more available at the village level. The Foundation is still engaged in this program today.
• The Novartis Foundation promotes surveys that aim at detecting remaining leprosy cases in order to better control and ultimately eliminate leprosy. For more information please visit the leprosy control studies website.

The impact of the Foundation's activities has extended beyond the individual programs. Many of these approaches have been adopted by others.

Important reference documents for a world without leprosy:

Global Strategy 2006-2010
Download > [en] (PDF, 420 KB)

Operational Guidelines 2006-2010
Download > [en] (PDF, 252 KB)