Study looks at migrant-linked trans­mis­sion of lep­rosy in city

Over a five ­year period, 515 new cases of lep­rosy have been detec­ted in Chen­nai. Though the over­all Annual New Case Detec­tion Rate (ANCDR) remained largely stable, per­sist­ent hot­spots were iden­ti­fied in indus­trial and bor­der zones.

These areas also recor­ded higher new case rates among chil­dren, ran­ging from 3.5 to 11.5 per 1,00,000, indic­at­ing ongo­ing trans­mis­sion likely linked to migrant pop­u­la­tions, a study has found.

The find­ings of the study on “Urban Hot­spots Of Lep­rosy: Child And Migrant-linked Trans­mis­sion In Chen­nai, 2021–2025” were pub­lished in the Tamil Nadu Journal of Pub­lic Health and Med­ical Research.

The study was con­duc­ted by Sridevi Govin­da­ra­jan, Vas­anthi Thangasamy, and Dharmalingam Vedanay­agam of the Dir­ect­or­ate of Med­ical and Rural Health Ser­vices (Lep­rosy).

The authors con­duc­ted a descript­ive cross­sec­tional study using sec­ond­ary pro­gramme data from 15 admin­is­trat­ive zones of Chen­nai dis­trict.