Increase of leprosy cases in Firozabad District of India - A two time cross-sectional survey.

India declared leprosy elimination on 31(st) December 2004 after reaching reported prevalence below 1 per 10000 populations(1) . WHO recent data reports 21.2% decline in number of new cases during 2005-09 and further 5.9% during 2009-14 from 169709 cases in 2005(2) . This led to several issues of policy implications and leprosy became disease of less importance and thus reduced attention of public health programme managers in India. However, independent reports(3-10) from several states in India and elsewhere in Brazil, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Madgaskar revealed that leprosy is rather rising, therefore questioning the authenticity of elimination claim. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.