Leprosy global statistics: beware of traps

Global Leprosy statistics for the year 2008 were recently published by WHO. While nothing is presented for the European Region, a total of 121 among 169 countries or territories from the other Regions reported data. The figures presented concern the absolute numbers of registered and newly detected cases, new MB, female and children cases, new cases with grade 2 disabilities, number of relapses and cure rates. Detection trends over the last 7 years per region and for the 17 countries reporting at least 1000 new cases in 2008 are also presented. Efforts have obviously been made by WHO to be as complete and as transparent as possible, since a clear distinction is made between countries reporting no new patients, and those which did not report. According to the report, the number of newly detected cases was 249,007 in 2008, or a 3·5% decrease compared to 2007. Although some countries are missing, their impact on global data would, in any case, be very limited: looking at previous years, one can estimate that a total of about 1000 additional newly detected cases only, almost all from Africa, could have been reported by all these countries and territories together. In spite of the efforts made, it would, however, be quite dangerous to try and draw many firm conclusions from these data. A number of caveats must be made: