The strength of the programme is undisputed:

• A 50 years' record of successful Leprosy Control.
• A professionally competent and motivated team of paramedicals, working all over Pakistan, who recently have shown their mettle in
  the Earthquake regions of Azad Kashmir.
• Mobility and
• A high level of acceptance by the people
• A Private Public Partnership model which has saved the programme from major financial crises, and growing financial support in Pakistan.
• Reliable recording and reporting, administratively as well as medically
• Transparent financial systems.

The Paramedicals, the mainstay of the programme, have been constantly retrained and kept up to date with the new developments, thus they are well suited to open a new chapter in the history of the programme.

New Developments are:

• Cooperation with the Allama Iqbal Open University to raise the standard of the certificate course to F.Sc (Diploma) This will start in August 2006.
• Affiliation with the College of Medical Technology in Islamabad which will ensure that F.Sc qualification is sustainable. The "Community Health Technician" (Leprosy) Syllabi have been approved.
• New development in N.W.F.P. where the Leprosy Programme has been merged with the Primary Health Care Programme, opening up new avenues (for example: integration of Leprosy control into the Primary Health Services of the Province); similar developments have started in Islamabad, the Paramedical Council seems finally to have been made active.

Keeping all these exciting development in mind, there seems that the future of the Leprosy programme will be in Community Health, a development which is fully supported by the operational level. We shall doubtlessly still face considerable challenges before the Leprosy cadre has found its appropriate place in the health services, but with the potential of the group, it will happen.

In the next two years we shall let you know which development has taken place, without jeopardizing the pervious ongoing achievements.