Insufficient funding frustrate efforts to equip healthcare workers with diagnostic skills on leprosy. By Caroline Katana, Kwale Although leprosy is grouped as a rare disease According to the World Health Organization,WHO approximately 208,000 people have leprosy (Hansen's disease) globally , with most cases found in Asia and Africa. In the United States, about 100 people receive a leprosy (Hansen's disease) diagnosis every year. The exact mechanism of transmission of leprosy is not known. At least until recently, the most widely held belief was that the disease was transmitted by contact between cases of leprosy and healthy persons. More recently the possibility of transmission by the respiratory route is gaining ground. There are also other possibilities such as transmission through insects which cannot be completely ruled out. 1980s , the highly feared disease, was declared eliminated. Statistics from the Ministry of Health, however, show that cases of leprosy have ...