Report of the workshop on sentinel surveillance for drug resistance in leprosy: 20–22 October, 2008, Hanoi, Vietnam WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION

Professor W.C.S. Smith welcomed all participants and stressed the importance of this workshop in getting national programmes and reference laboratories to come together to collaborate in setting up a sentinel surveillance system to monitor drug resistance in leprosy. The Vice-Minister of Health in Viet Nam, Dr. Nguyen Thi Xuyen, in her opening address welcomed the participants and thanked WHO for giving the opportunity to host this important workshop in Hanoi. She pointed out that this workshop is an important step towards improving the quality of the leprosy control services and it is very encouraging to see that all partners namely, the national programmes, research institutes and their laboratories and WHO are joining hands to set-up this surveillance system. The WHO Representative to Viet Nam Dr. Jean-Marc Olivé addressed the participants and read out the welcome speech from the Regional Director of the Western Pacific Region. The participants selected Professor W.C.S. Smith as chairperson, Dr. Tran Hau Khang as co-chairperson and Dr. Paul Saunderson as rapporteur of the workshop. Agenda and list of participants are provided in annexes 1 and 2.