World Leprosy Day: 4 Stories That Show the Ongoing Impact of Leprosy

As part of the Novartis Foundation’s effort to document the impact of leprosy on patients, their families and communities – as well as our work to stop it – we have added four new entries to our visual story-telling platform, called Global Health Stories.

• Shwe Zin Thai from Myanmar found patches on her arm and showed them to a midwife, who diagnosed her with leprosy.

• Nay Myo Aung was screened for leprosy in the town of Min Hla in Myanmar.

• Daw Too found out her neighbor was diagnosed with leprosy two years ago. She and her family were screened for leprosy and offered a post-exposure prophylaxis.

• Community members are screened for leprosy in Nyaung-U, Myanmar as part of LPEP.

In 2014, Novartis Foundation launched our new strategy to interrupt the transmission of leprosy, developed with top leprosy and disease elimination experts. Since then, we have been working tirelessly to implement programs in support of its four pillars: early detection and treatment, contact tracing and preventative treatment, surveillance and response and the development of tools for faster and earlier diagnosis.

At the same time, following the commitment made on January 30, 2012 as part of the London Declaration on Neglected Tropical Diseases, Novartis has continued to donate multidrug therapy (MDT) medicines to treat leprosy through the year 2020. On the 5^th anniversary of the London Declaration, Novartis and the Novartis Foundation remain committed to working with our partners on efforts like these.

Read the article: World Leprosy Day: over 30 years of innovation by Novartis and the Novartis Foundation.

Visit Global Health Stories for more images from our programs across the world, captured by a range of talented photographers at http://gallery-novartisfoundation.org/.