CJIL Field Unit was initially sanctioned as a temporary Scheme, "Field Unit for Leprosy Vaccine Trial" in 1985. Realizing the potentials of this Unit, it was upgraded into CJIL Field Unit for Epidemiology of Leprosy and was absorbed into Central JALMA Institute for Leprosy on permanent basis.

Objectives

    Conducting epidemiological studies relevant to the National Leprosy Eradication Programme,      planning and execution of various intervention studies such as
  
    Leprosy Vaccine Trial

    Multi Drug Therapy

    Operational Research

    Carrying out epidemiological studies with respect to leprosy risk factors, transmission, natural      history etc.

     Methodological studies with reference to leprosy in particular and chronic infectious diseases       in general.

Research contributions / Achievements
Initial activities of the Unit took care of developing and standardizing robust methods to undertake longitudinal epidemiological and intervention studies in leprosy. Areas covered were, sensitivity and specificity of clinical diagnostic procedures, histopathology and direct microscopy examination for acid-fast bacilli with particular reference to early forms of leprosy. Field studies were undertaken for various skin tests and serological investigations to identify their utility in diagnosing infection due to M. leprae and on tests for prognosis.

A large scale comparative Leprosy Vaccine Trial was launched in 1991, with the objective of identifying prophylactic efficacy of available candidate leprosy vaccines against leprosy. Apart from the three candidate vaccine arms (ICRC, M. w and BCG + killed M. Leprae), there are two other control arms, BCG and normal saline. It is a double blind controlled trial and had already provided vital epidemiological information. Three surveys (intake survey, first and second resurvey) of the selected 3,00,000 population have been completed.

CJIL Field Unit had been involved in the South India BCG prophylaxis study in Chingleput district (1973 - 1986). Detailed analysis of voluminous data has been completed. It is observed that BCG in its full dose (0.1 mg) gave an overall protection of 25%. Young children were protected best and there was considerable waning of protective efficacy over a period of time. Smear positive forms of leprosy were not prevented.

CJIL Field Unit participated in the WHO sponsored multi-centric trial on single dose therapy for mono-lesion cases. The extended study for two or three lesions cases was completed.

This Unit was keenly interested in studies on nerve involvement in leprosy. Some important studies had been carried out on quiet nerve paralysis. A health system research study on disabled leprosy cases was completed with WHO support in Chittoor district, Andhra Pradesh.

CJIL Field Unit had close links with the National Leprosy Eradication Programme. Opportunities were utilized to study the impact of MDT on leprosy trends in several districts in the country. Methods have been developed for sample surveys for this purpose. CJIL Field Unit had done a study on rapid assessment methods for leprosy endemicity and its trends.

Availability of longitudinally collected data from two leprosy vaccine trials and close association with the control programme had helped in developing a simulation model (SIMLEP) for evaluation and prediction of epidemiological trends in leprosy programmes.