Message from the CEO – March 2020

It seems that every conversation starts with COVID-19 and checking ‘how are you’. I’m now in New Zealand and am impressed with the Prime Minister’s call for kindness, alongside good preventive behaviour. It feels like a relevant message to us in the ILEP world too, as we respond to colleagues, supporters, volunteers and people affected by leprosy expressing their individual fears and anxieties over what’s ahead of us.

Talking about COVID-19, this update includes some lessons from past viral epidemics that are relevant to those of us thinking about how to keep leprosy and NTD services running in a pandemic. We’ve also included an International Women’s Day statement from UN human rights experts, including Alice Cruz, reminding us that gender-based discrimination persists and is still too often unchallenged. We share Nepal’s experience of the IDEA International Day of Dignity and Respect 2020. There’s a notification of the launch date of WHO’s new NTD Roadmap, and a reminder that it’s not too late to apply for the 2020 NTD Innovation Prize.

Among partners, WHO reports on an informal consultation on how to verify elimination of leprosy, defined as interruption of transmission. Along with that, GPZL is looking for people with technical know-how to engage in some specific tasks.

Lastly, we explain our thinking about what to do about the cancelled ILEP Conference: reschedule? Go virtual? And we explain what’s happening with the restructured ILEP Secretariat from 1 April. Read on!