The AI4Leprosy initiative, a partnership involving the Novartis Foundation, Fiocruz, and Microsoft AI for Health, is utilising machine learning to analyse skin lesion photos for early leprosy detection. A study published in The Lancet Regional Health – Americas reported that this open-source tool achieves over 90% accuracy in identifying potential cases. Read the validation study at The Lancet.
Author: bgt
Global leprosy (Hansen’s Disease) strategy 2021–2030
The World Health Organization has published the benchmark Global Leprosy (Hansen’s Disease) Strategy 2021–2030: Towards Zero Leprosy, in which he global health community has committed to aggressive milestones.
The strategy mandates a 70% reduction in the annual number of new cases and requires 120 countries to report zero indigenous transmission by the end of the decade. The framework explicitly prioritises the integration of digital health and innovative active case detection to bridge diagnostic gaps in hard-to-reach populations.
Leprosy microbes lead scientists to immune discovery
Thanks to the opportunity that human leprosy infections provide for study of human immune responses, scientists have discovered how the body’s early warning system prompts a rapid immune response by two separate armies of defensive cells.
The researchers isolated immune cells in blood samples from healthy people and exposed the cells to a component of mycobacteria. They noted that the large white blood cells known as monocytes rapidly differentiated into the two distinct cell types, macrophages, which seek out and engulf the infectious bugs, and dendritic, or “antigen-presenting” cells, which seize distinctive pieces of the enemy and use them to “educate” and stir up a second immune response, known as “adaptive” immunity.
Until now, laboratory dish experiments had not revealed that the instantaneous or “innate” immune reaction, discovered less than 10 years ago, is mounted by two differently-specialized cells.
To read more about this discovery see Leprosy microbes lead scientists to immune discovery
Delhi Has A Change of Heart for Sister Jean
A few days ago newspapers and websites were reporting that London-born Jacqueline Jean McEwan, a Catholic nun from Britain who has spent 29 years caring for leprosy patients in Bengaluru, India, is being forced to give up her work and leave the country after Delhi refused to renew her residency permit. Sometimes known as the Mother Teresa of Sumanahalli, Sister Jean runs a mobile clinic for leprosy patients in Bengaluru.
We can now confirm that Sister Jean McEwan, has been given an extension to apply for residency visa. We think that this is the least that the authorities in Delhi could do for someone who has been helping the country’s sick for nearly 30 years.
For more on this story, see also these links from the Guardian:
Nun forced to leave India after 29 years of helping leprosy patients
India extends British nun’s stay after visa row
Awareness of Hansen’s Disease in the United States
To some people, it might at first appear that leprosy or Hansen’s disease as it is properly known, is a disease of the third world, or of poverty torn countries, or confined to India. However, compiled statistics reveal that although it is comparatively rare in the United States, there are currently approximately 6,500 cases and about 3,300 require active medical management. One problem is that diagnosis in the US is often delayed because health care providers are unaware of Hansen’s disease (leprosy) and its symptoms.
Although Hansen’s disease is not a common infectious disease, it has not been eradicated from the US population, and is endemic, particularly in the Gulf Coast region. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) prevalence has remained relatively stable in the United States. Hansen’s disease is nationally notifiable, and in 2002, 96 cases occurring in the United States were reported to CDC. There are approximately 100 to 150 new cases diagnosed each year.
In 2008 (the most recent year for which data are available) 150 new cases were reported in the the United States, with the majority of these new cases (97 or 65%) reported in California, Florida, Hawaii, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New York and Texas.
Once you realize that even in the United States Hansen’s Disease is still a problem, all be it a small one, then you can appreciate the problem in less affluent countries. Awareness of Hansen’s Disease in the United States can contribute to the solution worldwide, and help to eradicate this disfiguring disease forever.
Registering a Charity
From the 1 April 2008 trustees of organisations applying for registration as a Charity will be required to have regard to the Charity Commission’s public benefit guidance and to demonstrate their organisation’s aims are for the public benefit as part of the application process. The Charity Commission provides comprehensive information on registering a new charity, including all the publications and forms you will need before you apply.
Click here to see the Charity Commission’s Public Benefit guidance
There are a few things to think about before setting up a new charity, and these are listed on the Commission’s website. Click here to view the Charity Commission’s Things to think about before setting up a new charity
The Charity Commission provides an online registration facility for organisations that are affiliated to an umbrella body and have a Commission approved governing document. The advantages of applying on-line are:
- The on-line application system only asks questions relevant to the organisation and to tailors the questions to the responses made to the earlier questions.
- Validation checks are carried out on the information as it is entered and can ensure that all required parts of the application are completed. This substantially reduces the need to contact applicants with queries.
- It eliminates clerical errors that can otherwise occur if someone unfamiliar with the organisation enters information into the charity database.
- Because of these advantages, they aim to provide the majority of organisations with their registered charity number in about a week. This compares with an average turnaround time for paper applications of about a month.