Leprosy: Why does it persist among us?

Despite a substantial reduction in its global prevalence since 1990s, leprosy transmission continues unabated and remains a significant public health problem. The causes for its persistence are multi-factorial, ranging from the lack of implementation of contact tracing, the skill-dependent diagnostic method with over reliance on clinical recognition; to its strong linkages to social inequality and inequity. Leprosy control and elimination is still an enormous challenge for governments and scientists and the answer for this complex problem needs to be multifaceted, which includes higher research investments to identify risk areas, novel and better diagnostics and therapeutic tools and a reduction of social inequalities.