Active case detection of leprosy among indigenous people in Sarawak, East Malaysia

Leprosy is still an important public health problem in many developing countries. In Malaysia, the elimination status was achieved in 1994 and in Sarawak it was achieved in 1996. However, leprosy is still highly prevalent among the indigenous Penans in Sarawak with an annual prevalence rate of 5·5 per 10,000 population compared to 0·07 per 10,000 population for the rest of the population in Sarawak from the year 2000 to 2013. This study showed that targeted active case detection was an effective method to detect new leprosy cases in a highly endemic area among the indigenous Penans.