Report for 2024
Report for 2024
We thought you might like to read an abbreviated version of the Chairman's report for 2024. It gives an overview of our work for the last year.
The year ending 30 June 2024, was one of excellent progress, both in terms of leprosy elimination and our welfare programmes. We continued to balance progress in furthering our goal of reducing the burden of leprosy in the Pacific, with ensuring that the needs of people who have been affected by leprosy are met. Our strengths continue to be the close working relationship we have with health ministries in the countries where we work, and the personal contact we have with the people affected by leprosy who need our help. Both groups know that they can trust us to keep working with them to meet their collective and individual goals.
• Kiribati continued to take a considerable portion of our resources both in terms of time allocated and financially.
• January 2024 was the start of the second full year of the Combine/Pearl project. The project continued in Betio which is the biggest population centre in Kiribati with a population of 15000.
• Professor Chambers presented the progress report on the Combine/Pearl project at the Leprosy Research Initiative’s Spring meeting in April in Amsterdam. This was well received, however there was some concern that at completion of the funding for Combine in June 2026, the project will not be complete.
• Dr Patrick Campbell commenced work on his PhD which focusses on leprosy reactions, including dapsone resistance, in Kiribati. With approximately twenty five percent of leprosy patients experiencing leprosy reactions during or after treatment this work will provide valuable information to provide better care and outcomes for i-Kiribati people who develop leprosy.
• The PEP (post exposure prophylaxis) programme in Kiribati, which is separate from the Combine/Pearl project, entered its sixth year. The programme provides for two annual doses of Rifampicin followed by three further annual examinations. Close to sixteen thousand contacts are now registered on the database and are monitored in this way for five years. Teaoraereke village, where the project was piloted in 2018, was the first area for the five-year programme to be completed. Tearoraereke will now move onto a surveillance programme with extra screening of household and neighbour contacts of any new cases. This is a huge undertaking which is beginning to show positive results. The number of new cases for 2023 showed a small decrease over the previous year, while cases to the end of June 2024 show a significant decrease.
• Population based prophylaxis in Kiribati was further extended this year with the outer island of Beru, with the population of 2500, being screened for leprosy and provided with prophylaxis. Another island and two villages in Tarawa will be completed in the coming year.
• The Ministry of Health in Vanuatu gave approval for PEP to be part of the leprosy programme from 2024. Training of the teams that would implement it was conducted in March 2024. This was combined with training for already existing neglected tropical diseases teams who combined with TB/leprosy staff and the PLF team to start the project in the hot spot of Maskelyne in Malacula in October 2024.
- Our support for training dermatology specialists continued with the 2023 scholar, Dr Judith Fukona completing the diploma and returning to Honiara to run the newly established dermatology clinic. As in Kiribati, this is having a positive impact on the care of patients with leprosy, particularly those suffering from reactions. The 2024 Brian McMahon scholarship was awarded to Dr Temea Bauro to complete the masters program over the next three years. Dr Joseph Sangatu from the Solomons, who was our second scholarship recipient, and Dr Alma Ulufonua, who was the third, are also completing the masters, having received scholarship funding from other sources. Having dermatology graduates involved in their country’s leprosy programmes, has improved the care of patients and the linkages with medical staff and health ministries.
- Samoa, which was the first country where we worked with the Ministry of Health to implement PEP for household contacts, reported zero cases for the 2023 year. The implementation of a surveillance programme will be developed with the ministry in the next year.
- Our welfare assistance programmes to those affected by leprosy, and their families, continues to be a major component of our work. The Foundation has a great team of workers throughout the Pacific who monitor patients, help them to get medical assistance, ensure they have adequate housing and food and that their children get schooling. We cannot underestimate the importance of this to those affected by leprosy. Where stigma is still often an issue, having someone who will ensure you receive what you are entitled to, and is there to help you and your family gives security where there might otherwise be stigma, exclusion and hardship.
