The Philippine national leprosy programme review
In 2010, an external review of the country's national leprosy programme was conducted. The Research Institute of Tropical Medicine (RITM) carried out a local review of the programme in January 2011.
The reviews pointed out the following findings as challenges:
- Recording and reporting are often incomplete, which lead to inaccurate reports.
- Cohort reporting is not understood and practised, which lead to difficulty in monitoring performance and impact of the programme on the general population.
- Referral forms are hardly used, and if utilized at all, no feedback is given to the periphery.
- The tendency of over-classifying detected cases was observed, which could explain the high proportion of Multi Bascilli diseases in the country.
- Oftentimes, disability is neither assessed nor recorded. In many places, including referral centres, early neuritis and prevention of disability (POD) are neglected.
In 2012, in collaboration with the National Leprosy Control Programme and Culion Foundation, WHO reviewed the Leprosy control programme for 2006-2010.