Leprosy Mailing List – November 8th, 2007
Ref.: Training
material in Dermatology and Leprosy
From: Post E., Würzburg,
Germany
Dear Salvatore,
In the discussion on dermatology-leprosy that
appeared in your mailing list recently I would like to add some.
The German Leprosy and Tuberculosis Relief
Association (GLRA) is currently considering to develop together with
ALERT, Ethiopia, a 1-week course/workshop on “Community
Dermatology”. The
strategy might be feasible to both strengthen competences of basic
health services in general and to keep leprosy on the agenda of PHC
policy makers. See also
the 2007 March edition of Leprosy Review (can be found at http://www.leprosy-review.org.uk/ ). I
would like to know what elements partners would like to see in such
course/workshop?
An important issue will be what skin diseases to
include for the peripheral levels and how to build referral systems. In this regard I would suggest
to look at the following WHO document as a possible basis for policy
development:
http://www.who.int/child-adolescent-health/New_Publications/CHILD_HEALTH/DP/WHO_FCH_CAH_05.12.pdf
An additional training / resource book would be
the one of Ben Naafs and Colette van Hees, which is available through
the internet at :
http://telemedicine.itg.be/telemedicine/Uploads/skin.pdf The beauty of this book is that it gives
a comprehensive description (with many pictorials) and quick treatment
guidelines for many skin diseases, each disease on 1-2 pages. Set-back is the focus on
Africa, but the idea of comprehensiveness was already taken up
elsewhere.
I hope this issue will be taken up widely and
put into practice, at least as pilots to see what it will bring for
leprosy work and the credibility of leprosy control strategies.
Best regards,
Erik Post
Erik Post, MD MSc,
Medical Advisor
German Leprosy and
Tuberculosis Relief Association
Mariannhillstr. 1-C,
97074 Wuerzburg, Germany
Tel: +49 931
7948 113 Fax:
+49 931 7948 160
Email:
erik.post@dahw.de
Internet: www.dahw.de
