Anti-Leprosy Campaign Director Dr. Prasad Ranaweera said that they have decided not to conduct screedings for leprosy in schools in the future.
He said the move was taken after paying attention to the mental health of the children. However, he said the screenings and tests conducted in other venues and contact-tracing would be continued.
“More than 80% of the children have non-infectious leprosy. When we try to identify such a child as a leprosy patient, that child will suffer mentally when being examined at the school. People fear when we detect a child with leprosy. We do not reveal the identity of the child but in very rare cases, the child may be identified separately.”
“The anti-leprosy campaign of the Ministry of Health decided that we will not visit the school if we found a child with leprosy. We would only do it under special circumstances and very carefully. In general, we won’t do it,” he said.
