Report of the eighth meeting of the WHO Technical Advisory Group on leprosy control : Aberdeen, Scotland 21st April 2006

The Eighth WHO Technical Advisory Group meeting was held on 21 April 2006 in Aberdeen, Scotland. It was chaired by Professor C. Smith. Four new experts from Madagascar, Yemen, Uganda and Japan joined the TAG for a two-year term. The global leprosy situation in terms of new case detections during 2006 was 296 499 cases. At the beginning of 2006 a total of 219 826 cases were being registered for treatment globally. The declining trend of annual new case detection globally is expected to continue. Six countries, namely: Brazil, the Congo, Madagascar, Mozambique, Nepal and Tanzania are yet to achieve the goal of elimination of leprosy as a public health problem (defined as a prevalence of less than one case per 10 000 population). The members of the TAG approved the Operation Guidelines and discussed about the steps to support the implementation of the Global Strategy 2006-2010 in all leprosy-endemic countries. In addition, the ongoing research activities were reviewed and recommendations made regarding future research needs.