Why not aim for the eradication of leprosy rather than elimination?
Eradication would mean the complete absence of the disease and the organism that causes it throughout the world. At present, we lack the tools both to protect people from developing leprosy and to diagnose and treat the disease in its sub-clinical form. Significant resources would be required to develop and deploy the necessary tools, and hence, it was decided to aim at elimination of the disease as a public health problem, as the first step.
