What is striking is that 23 years later (The Leprosy Review by Lepra, Sept. 2010) and almost 30 since the introduction of the multi-drug therapy (MDT), we read that “The impact of stigma is remarkably similar in different countries and health conditions, despite enormous cultural diversity and differences in determinants. […] It should be possible to develop a generic set of stigma assessment instruments.”

In other words we are still speaking in terms of search for means to assess something that should have been gone for some time by now. We are not even mentioning solutions!

As was highlighted at the 17th International Leprosy Congress held in India on January 30 thru February 4, 2008 “There is still need to continue research for new, shorter, possibly fully supervised, MDT regimens, based on the combination of highly bactericidal drugs” simply because “the challenge of similar yearly numbers of emerging new cases and the problem of reactions and nerve damage leading to disability remains a serious issue” (Sixth Meeting of the IDEAL Consortium held in Beijing on 23-25 Aug. 2010).

In such overall disheartening situation some ray of hope came last December with the adoption, by consensus by 192 countries, of a resolution submitted by the Japanese government at the UN General Assembly on ending discrimination against people affected by leprosy and their families, together with principles and guidelines.