Cuba will hold the 33rd National Leprosy Day next January 25, a time for updating on this disease and debating the latest developments in treatment that exist in the world today.

Havana, Cuba.- Cuba today advances a strategy aimed at eliminating the transmission of leprosy, a curable and not very contagious disease, with an incubation period of five years on average, transmitted through the respiratory route and by contact with the skin lesions of an untreated patient, after an intimate and repeated relationship.

Among the priorities of the strategy are updating the national program against this disease, strengthening surveillance, improving the provision of services, and continuously training health personnel, patients, family members, and the community in general.

Since 1962, the largest of the Antilles has had a project to combat it, and in 1993 leprosy stopped being a health problem. (RHC)