A resurgence in the number of cases of leprosy throughout the Pacific has experts saying the disease is far from eradicated there.
The number of new cases has been growing during the past four years.
Recently there has been an outbreak of leprosy affecting 24 people living in displaced people’s centres in Honiara.
Over the past year there have been 115 cases of leprosy reported in Kiribati and 20 new cases in Samoa.
In New Zealand, 11 new cases were reported over the past 12 months, according to the Ministry of Health.
Pacific Leprosy Foundation general manager Jill Tomlinson said that as far as her organisation was aware all New Zealand cases were from infected people coming from overseas.
“Cases in leprosy tend to come in clusters as it is a disease that is transmitted by contact,” she said.
Source