Impact of General health volunteers on leprosy control in Nimba County, Liberia: an experience from the Ganta Leprosy Rehabilitation Centre over 2013– 2015

Objective: To assess the impact of the training General Community Health Volunteers (GCHVs) in leprosy case finding activities on the total cases reported. Methods: The effect of training General Community Health Volunteers to identify suspected cases of leprosy by actively searching for cases in the community, was measured by comparing the number of cases identified after training, to the number of cases in previous years. Results: There was a gradual increase in the annual new case detection from the year 2012 onwards, when the GCHVs were trained. The number of new cases reported increased from 159 to 196 by 2015. The grade 2 disability rate among new cases reduced from 13·2% to 7%. The proportion of MB cases dropped from 40·8 % in 2012 to 33·1% in 2015. Conclusion: Many new cases of leprosy were found in the communities. A large number of cases were detected by GCHVs with no disabilities. This suggests that the training of GCHVs is a highly effective measure for increasing early case detection in the Liberian context. In this light, an introduction of GCHV training in all 15 counties should be considered.