In a message for the World Day for the Fight against Leprosy, the
Pontifical Council for Health Care has called for redoubled efforts to
fight “a malady that is as old as it is grave.” The Vatican message - signed by Archbishop Zygmunt Zimowski, the president of the Pontifical Council for Health Care, notes that 220,000 people contracted leprosy in 2011.
That statistic demonstrates the need for more work to eliminate the disease, the document says, pointing particularly to “lack of education as regards prevention in communities that run the risk of contagion, as well as the need for specifically designed medico-hygienic initiatives.”