Thirteen drug companies, the governments of the United States, Britain and the United Arab Emirates, the World Bank, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Lions Club and other smaller charitable organizations on Monday announced a joint effort to tackle 10 neglected tropical diseases in a coordinated fashion.

Western Province records the highest number (42 percent) of leprosy patients in the country. The second highest number of leprosy patients (13 percent) is recorded from the Eastern Province. North Western Province records the third highest number (11 percent) of leprosy patients, Health Ministry additional secretary Dr Palitha Mahipala said.
He said the Southern Province records 10 percent of the total number of leprosy patients reported in Sri Lanka.

AIZAWL, Feb 1: The State Health Department in a statement issued on the Anti-Leprosy Day today said Mizoram is marching ahead towards total eradication of leprosy. Mizoram on Saturday observed the 62nd Anti-Leprosy Day along with the rest of the country to mark the death anniversary of Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi.

The government, finally on Tuesday officially declared the elimination of leprosy, once a major public health problem in the country. With this declaration, Nepal has become one of the countries to achieve this universal goal.

In 1999, the World Health Assembly passed a resolution to eliminate leprosy by the year 2000.

RASHME SEHGAL

The department of biotechnology is moving at a rapid pace to develop new vaccines to combat tuberculosis, malaria, cholera, rabies, leprosy, HIV AIDS and cancer.

It provides the oldest skeletal evidence of leprosy a museum in Pune has a collection of thousands of bones and skeletons excavated in India. Among them is a 4,000 year old skeleton of a man believed to be 37 years when he died. This skeleton was found buried at Balathal, about 40 km north-east of Udaipur in Rajasthan. What sets it apart from other skeletons at the museum of the

When it was introduced in Europe, people associated the potato with disease In 1769, the wheat crop failed in France. Bread, the French staple, disappeared from boulangerie shelves. There was rioting in the streets of Paris and hordes of undernourished people looted bakeries. The French monarchy which had just scraped through the Seven Years