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

Since 1962, Cuba has had a project to fight leprosy, and in 1993, the disease ceased to be a health problem in the country.

Every year, new cases of both sexes and all ages are reported in all Cuban provinces, with an average of 180 patients a year.

The Granma newspaper reported that leprosy is transmitted through the respiratory tract and by contact with the skin lesions of an untreated patient after an intimate and repeated relationship.

jg/iff/mem/joe