The World Health Organization (WHO) and Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis on Monday renewed an agreement to supply leprosy patients worldwide with free medication.

The deal extends the current agreement until the end of 2010 and is valued at between 14.5 and 24.5 million US dollars depending on the number of cases detected over the next five years, WHO said in a statement.

The first phase of the donation (2000 to 2005) has led to the cure of about four million patients at a cost of 40 million dollars.

The UN agency said the decreased amount of drugs supplied under the new agreement is due to the impressive progress being made in the struggle to eliminate leprosy as a public health problem in all countries.

As of the beginning of 2005, the number of cases of leprosy worldwide was 286,000, a drop of 38 percent from the beginning of 2004.

The rapid progress in recent years is largely due to improved coverage of leprosy treatment services, which had been integrated into general health system, said WHO.

Drug treatment for leprosy is highly effective. A multidrug therapy -- three-drug combination of dapsone, rifampicin and clofazimine can cure the disease. Transmission of leprosy is stopped with the first dose, and the remaining treatment takes up to a year.

The therapy is donated by Novartis and made available by WHO free to all disease endemic countries. It had been made easily accessible even in the most remote areas and amongst communities most affected by the disease.

Since 1985, more than 14 million patients have been cured of leprosy through the use of the multidrug therapy, according to WHO.

Leprosy is a chronic disease caused by a bacterium, mycobacterium leprae. It is not highly infectious but can cause severe and permanent damage to the skin, nerves, limbs and eyes if untreated.

Leprosy remains a public health problem in nine countries: Angola, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Madagascar, Mozambique, Tanzania, India, Nepal and Brazil.

Source: Xinhua