Symposium on emerging needs in leprosy research in the post elimination era: The Leprosy Mission Trust India.

After the declaration of Elimination of leprosy in 2005, attention to leprosy has gradually diminished. In the last 10 years the leprosy scenario has not shown the improvement that was expected in the post elimination era the number of new cases each year show no significant decline, and the complications of leprosy continue to cause disability and deformity which leads thousands to dehabilitation and untold suffering. With the shrinking of available funds, research into leprosy has been neglected and now remaining only in a few organizations where fundamental studies on the disease are being carried out. To improve the situation, several strategies have been adopted by leprosy groups in enhancing research, capacity building on topics which are of priority to Government of India (GOI), WHO and ILEP, hoping that this would generate evidence based knowledge and learning to accelerate the eradication of the causes and consequences of leprosy.