Hanseníase: políticas públicas e qualidade de vida de - Centro de ...

8.5 The World Health Assembly Resolution 1991
The Forty-fourth World Health Assembly, which met in in Geneva in May 1991, adopted a
resolution to eliminate leprosy as a public health problem by the year 2000, defining
elimination as attaining a level of prevalence below one case per 10 000 population, at the
global level.
This resolution reflected WHO's ongoing commitment to achieving the global elimination of
the disease, and recognised the significant progress made with multidrug therapy (MDT) and
the consequent reduction in disease prevalence. It also recognised and welcomed the
substantial support from non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and the increased priority
accorded to leprosy control by many of its Member States.
The resolution urged Member States to strengthen their political commitment to leprosy
elimination so as to reach the elimination goal as soon as possible. It requested WHO to
increase it technical support to Member States, and to continue to mobilize and coordinate
resources from NGOs and others in order to achieve that goal.
By establishing a target for the year 2000, the WHA drew attention to the effectiveness of the
available treatment technology, the need for leprosy-endemic countries and donor agencies to
no longer regard leprosy as a permanent and intracTabela problem, and to redouble their
efforts towards controlling leprosy, and its acceptance as simply another health problem with
a clear solution.
Armed with a clear mandate from its Member States, WHO approached the international
donor community to fund an elimination strategy. By 1995 it had established a global supply
of MDT drugs, a key element of the strategy, which it then made available free of charge to
all patients around the world.
The elimination of leprosy at the global level was achieved by the end of 2000, after which
WHO then established its own more radical targets of reaching elimination at national and
then sub-national levels. The setting of such targets helped generate and maintain high levels
of political commitment in endemic countries, as well as encouraging donor support for
essential activities such as MDT supply and logistics.
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