This week, the World Health Organisation (WHO) celebrates International Leprosy Day and from the high school of Tropical Health of the University of Navarra (ISTUN) we want to bring some clarity to the gloom surrounding leprosy and its patients.

The WHO defines leprosy as a chronic disease caused by a slow-growing bacillus (Mycobacterium leprae). It has a slow incubation period of about five years and symptoms can take up to 20 years to appear, so early detection is essential. Leprosy is curable and, despite popular belief, not highly contagious, it is transmitted by nasal and oral droplets when there is close and frequent contact with untreated patients contact . The issue number of new cases reported worldwide in 2015 was 211,973 (2.9 cases per 100 000) compared to 213,899 in 2014 and 215,656 in 2013.

In the last 20 years, more than 16 million sufferers have been treated, the prevalence rate has fallen by 99% and the morbidity, i.e. the proportion of people who become ill with a condition at any one time, has also fallen dramatically. So, some may ask, what more needs to be done?

Despite great advances, this disease is burdened by a "millenarian stigmatisation" that makes it difficult for patients to go to health centres and hospitals when they detect their first symptoms. Fear of marginalisation and rejection hinders the fight against the disease. As the WHO points out, "it is imperative to create a new environment in which patients do not hesitate to seek care for diagnosis and treatment". The very origin of World Leprosy Day dates back to 1954 with the idea of removing the negative image of those affected by leprosy.

The Global Leprosy Strategy 2016-2020 aims to reduce the prevalence of leprosy to less than one case per 10,000 population, goal . It lists "strengthening government ownership, coordination and partnerships", "stopping leprosy and its complications" and "ending discrimination and promoting inclusion" as the main pillars in the fight against leprosy. However, beyond global and supranational plans, the existence of these diseases and our total or partial ignorance of them should lead us to consider what each of us can do for the thousands of people and children who are affected.

At ISTUN, our work focuses on research and on the search for diagnosis and treatment for neglected or forgotten diseases, but we are also convinced that part of our work has to do with raising awareness of the existence of these diseases. There are millions of people affected around the world, but a better world is possible, a world without neglected diseases or even neglected people.