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Cameroon'¯Sees Resurgence of Leprosy 20 Years After 'Eradication'

Moki Edwin Kindzeka

   YAOUNDE - Cameroon is seeing a resurgence of leprosy, the
   bacterial'¯infectious disease that causes severe, disfiguring skin
   sores and nerve damage.'¯Cameroon health authorities, on Sunday's World
   Leprosy Day, said infections have jumped by about 50% since 2018.'¯
   Leprosy patients say, just as in ancient times, they are shunned and
   neglected.

   Cameroon two decades ago announced that it had eliminated leprosy, but
   around 200 cases continued to be reported each year.

   In 2019, cases of the bacterial disease, which damages skin and nerves,
   increased to 270 and last year jumped to over 300.

   Ernest Nji Tabah, the permanent secretary of Cameroon's National
   Committee for Leprosy, says a number of Cameroon's health districts
   have been reporting outbreaks of the chronic but curable condition.

   "About 70 new cases have been reported in the southwest. We have hot
   spots in regions like the North, the Adamawa, the Southwest, the
   Northwest," he said. "People think that leprosy is a spell, it is
   divine punishment, it is caused by witchcraft, it is hereditary and so
   on. Leprosy is none of these."

   Tabah was attending an event organized by the aid group Circle of
   Friends Cameroon for Sunday's World Leprosy Day.

   Aid groups handed out small gifts of food, soap, and toiletries to 30
   leprosy patients at the Jamot's Hospital in Cameroon's capital,
   Yaoundé.

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