2013 – a very busy year for Lalgadh Leprosy Services Centre

2013 was a record breaking year for the work at Lalgadh as numbers of patient visits climbed again, reaching more than 62,000 for the year. Of those, more than 11,000 were by people needing help with leprosy and we diagnosed over 1,100 new cases of leprosy which is similar to previous years, representing over 30% of all the new cases diagnosed in Nepal, and more than any other centre in the world.

Nearly 30% of these new cases already have nerve damage and these people will need ongoing care from us, possibly for many years to come. Nevertheless, we now have more than 80 self help groups active in our work area and these groups are making a real difference to attitudes and conditions in the communities where they are working. These groups involve more than 2000 people directly, many affected by leprosy but some disabled in other ways, and they impact positively on many thousands of other people who are dependents or neighbours. The work of these groups proves that  people do not have to be defined by their problems, but can learn how to become important and respected contributors to their communities again, with some help and encouragement.

Below is a table showing interesting data from 2013: