Funds Development Manager of the Leprosy Mission of Nigeria (LMN), Terver Anyor has said that the federal government needs to redouble efforts to eradicate Leprosy in Nigeria.
Anyor while speaking at the seminar for media practitioners in Ilorin revealed that Kano State had the highest reported cases of 305 of persons affected by Leprosy in Nigeria in the year 2013, adding that it was followed by Zamfara state with 260 cases and Jigawa state with 212 reported cases.
He said “At present, there is no single case of reported leprosy in Europe, because the governments of the countries in the continent fought the disease head long. But here in Nigeria, even though the governments pay the salaries of our workers, they don’t give regular subventions to us again.
“Since the year 1993, the government had only released funds for the control of the disease about five times. We are talking of eradicating the disease and not controlling it. We need to muster all efforts like we did in the case of polio to eradicate leprosy as well in this country.”
He further explained that “Persons affected by leprosy and their family members should be treated as people with dignity and are entitled, on an equal basis with others, to all the human rights and fundamental freedoms proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as in other relevant international human rights instruments to which their respective states are parties. These should also include the Convention on the Rights of Persons with disabilities.
“Persons affected by leprosy and their family members should have the same rights as everyone else with respect to marriage, family and parenthood. To this end, no one should be denied the rights to marry on the grounds of leprosy, leprosy should not constitute a ground for divorce and a child should not be separated from his or her parents on the grounds of leprosy.”