With their extensive coverage and manpower, government health facilities hold primary responsibility for early detection, treatment, and contact screening for leprosy control. However, in the last-mile settings where TLM operates, leprosy control is often hindered by systemic health system challenges, including understaffing, under-skilling, and a lack of adequate resourcing. Health workers manage multiple programmes simultaneously, leaving limited time for outreach to remote areas.
On occasions when we manage to encourage more engagement from government teams, this can be undermined. Sometimes this is caused by staff moving on, or by climate events or conflict making access to rural areas impossible.
