Abstract

Leprosy is an age-old chronic infectious disease of mankind. This disease has been infecting humans for at least 100,000 years and still affects millions of people all over the world. India achieved Leprosy “elimination” in December 2005, but the disease remains a major public health concern because India still has the highest leprosy burden in the world. According to the National Leprosy Elimination Program (NLEP), a total of 114451 new cases were detected between 2019 and 2020 and about half that many between 2020 and 2021.So,it is important to understand the trends of leprosy but short-term trends in leprosy are difficult to interpret due to year-to-year fluctuations in program activities and hence Long-term trends are more important to understand the clinic epidemiological trends of leprosy and to monitor the leprosy control activity. In this study we have done aretrospective statistical analysis of data obtained from the health department, Karaikal, India for ten yearsi.e. from 2012 to 2022. Major key indicators of leprosy burden for both elimination of disease and elimination of transmissionare analyzed to understand the nature and trends of leprosy in a coastal district Karaikal and also to compare itwith the clinicoepidemiological trend of India.