Abstract
In 2020 we witnessed the global pandemic of COVID-19. Papua, Indonesia announced the first case of COVID-19 on 7 March 2020, and reached 41,137 positive cases with a total of 1,183 fatality cases in August 2021. In the midst of the effort to handle COVID-19, this area of hyper-endemic tropical diseases, including leprosy, has also had to cope with these established problems. Some leprosy indicators have shown decreased performance. The new case detection rate (NCDR) per 100,000 population in Papua Province decreased from 45.36 in 2019 to 29.75 in December 2020. Grade 2 disability (G2D) proportion amongst the new cases increased from 9.0% in 2019 to 11.4% in 2020. There was a 27% decrease of the proportion of child leprosy, following the decrease of elementary school surveys from 6.1% in 2019 to only 1.0% in 2020. Although precautions should be taken, it should be done to minimalize impacts not only for the current pandemic, but also the existing neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). The central government should optimize their functions as a control system to maintain standard services and to monitor the local health authority. The current guidelines regarding implementation of NTD programs during the COVID-19 pandemic should be evaluated and revised, and followed by adequate explanation and proper training to accommodate better services. Emphasis on prevention and early detection should be considered as the main way forward to strengthen the health system.
Highlights
Papua is Indonesia’s easternmost province, which encompasses the western half of New Guinea and several other islands
Combating Leprosy in COVID-19 Pandemic combined with less development of infrastructure, low knowledge, and less awareness exacerbate the health system problems in Papua Province, Indonesia (1)
Amid the struggle combating many infectious diseases, in 2020, we witnessed the global pandemic of COVID-19 that was firstly reported in China (2) and spread around the world including almost all provinces in Indonesia (3)
Summary
Papua is Indonesia’s easternmost province, which encompasses the western half of New Guinea and several other islands. The Ministry of Health (MoH) Indonesia planned to target leprosy elimination in all districts by 2030 (9), in line with the WHO strategy (10) To reach this target, MoH mobilized intensive case finding (ICF) in all endemic provinces. We took examples of leprosy management in two districts in Papua to explore how COVID-19 has affected some interventions that were rolled out, such as the development of local policy for leprosy control, capacity building of health staff, and intensive case finding activities. In addition to ICF funded by MoH, Biak and Keerom Districts have had a breakthrough in active case finding in villages by integrating the leprosy program in routine elderly and toddler mobile clinics provided by PHCs. Four districts planned and allocated the budget for chemoprophylaxis in 2019-2020. Some districts in Papua, including Keerom District, totally discarded the elementary children survey during 2020
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