By Toye Olori
OSSIOMO, NIGERIA, Feb 6 2001 (IPS)

A few years ago, thousands of lepers used to line up along the busy Ore-Benin highway to beg for alms.

Now only a dozen, or so, of them remain along the highway, near the Ossiomo Leprosy Settlement, 300 kilometres southeast of the country’s main commercial capital, Lagos.

This is because the portion of the road, which used to be full of pot holes, where the lepers used to wait for slow-moving motorists to beg, has been repaired. Vehicles now move faster, providing virtually no opportunity for the lepers to display their survival strategies.

Most motorists speed past the lepers, ignoring their pleas for “Help!” — which attract little, or no sympathy.

“I have been begging here for more than five years. Things were good as commuters gave alms freely because of the bad portion of the road here, but since the road was repaired by government, it has not been the same,” says David Osaro, a leper.

Osaro says most of his colleagues have moved to Benin-Asaba highway, the main route to the east of the country. Others left the camp as soon as money from alms along the Ore-Benin highway dwindled as a result of the repairs carried out on the damaged portion of the road.

“Government takes no care of us. I have nowhere to go. I stay at the camp and come in the morning to this place. Some kind travellers like you still stop and sometimes give us money,” he says.

The global figure of leprosy patients is put at above 15 million, out of which Nigeria is said to account for one million, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Leprosy, otherwise known as Hansen Disease (HD), is curable.

Medical experts explain that the disease is caused by the “bacillus mycobacterium leprae”, a germ with an incubation period ranging between five and 20 years. The germ often attacks the upper respiratory tracts and spreads to other organs, attacking the nerves of the face, nails, limbs and the testis. It is found in body fluids such as tears, sputrum, nassal and vaginal discharges.

In 1981, the WHO developed an effective multi-drug therapy (MDT), which is a combination of Dapson, Rifampicin and Clofazimine which kills the germs, cures the patient and prevents the occurrence of drug resistance.

The WHO reports show that the prevalence rate of leprosy has dropped by about 84 per cent while the number of countries where the disease is still a health problem has reduced to 24 from 122 previously. But it still constitutes a threat in endemic areas such as in sub-Saharan Africa and some Asian countries.

In Nigeria, a lot has been done to reduce the incidence. The government in collaboration with some international leprosy and tuberculosis organisations have embarked on a number of projects aimed at eradicating the contagious skin disease in Nigeria.

Five non-governmental organisations (ngos) — the Damien Foundation of Belgium, German Leprosy Relief Association, the Leprosy Mission International of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands Leprosy Relief Association and Sasakawa Memorial Health Foundation — have assisted the government in the war against leprosy and tuberculosis in the West African country of 120 million people.

During the first case study by Nigeria’s National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control Programme (NTLCP), in 1989, more than 200,000 leprosy patients were registered, but by the end of the 1994 case- finding, only 20,000 cases were recorded because of the distribution of leprosy drugs to patients.

NTLCP officials say the programme aims at reducing the number of leprosy patients to less than 10,000 by the end of last year in line with the WHO elimination target. Statistics for year 2000 are not available yet.

However, health advocates believe government has not done enough in the area of helping to rehabilitate leprosy patients in Nigeria.

“Leprosy is a serious health problem in Nigeria, one can notice a lot of begging by leprosy victims including women as well as children of victims, along the Benin-Ore and Benin-Warri Highway,” says Sam Andy, of Women Health and Action Research Centre in Benin, capital of Edo State, 462 kilometres southest of Lagos.

Andy told IPS: “If government has done enough in the area of rehabilitating victims, they would not be deserting their communes to beg for alms on the highways with the attendant risks to their lives and those of their children”.

Excerpt: