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Abstract
Leprosy is still a public health problem in many geographical areas with annual reported cases over 200,000 worldwide in 2016. Despite a steady decrease in its overall incidence last ten years, there has been an increase in its reported cases in certain hot spots. In order to accelerate the control of leprosy, the World Health Organization(WHO) published “Global Leprosy Strategy 2016-2020: Accelerating towards a leprosy-free world.” In addition, WHO published recently for the first time “Guidelines for the Diagnosis, Treatment, and Prevention of Leprosy” in June 2018. For the preparation of the Guidelines, WHO formed a Guideline Development Group (GDG), and GDG reviewed the literatures on each subject above and issued recommendations for the topics only based on evidences with a sufficient and reasonable quality. For an example, none of the new diagnostic laboratory tests such as serological and molecular tests was recommended for the diagnosis of leprosy mainly because of lacking systemic field evaluation of a given test which is manufactured in a GMP facility. Likewise, any research related to new treatment regimens, preventive therapy, and vaccines for leprosy control needs to be designed to meet the international norm. In this review, therefore, the contents in the Guidelines were introduced along with research topics in each subject in order to accelerate leprosy control for leprosy-free world. Lastly, an importance of international collaboration for leprosy research and for maintenance of clinical management expertise of the disease in a country where new cases are diminishing was emphasized.
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