Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if he will allocate funding to develop diagnostic tests for leprosy that are (a) simple and effective to use in the field and (b) diagnose peripheral nerve involvement early.

DFID’s research funding is allocated competitively mostly on the basis of open calls for proposals focussing on the need in Developing Countries. Three of our research programmes are dedicated to Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs), one of which, the Coalition for Operational Research on NTDs (COR-NTD), includes seven research projects that address leprosy with other diseases. Two of these proposals also include research on diagnostic approaches. With DFID funding, COR-NTD has also launched a specific call for proposals on leprosy research. We expect the evaluation of this call within the next four weeks. Current funding for COR-NTD is planned until 2021.

DFID does not have dedicated funding for leprosy control, but we support some programmes that include work on leprosy through UK Aid Direct. Additionally, some of our work on health system strengthening contributes to tackling leprosy. We do not disaggregate this funding by disease that would enable us to provide an actual figure. Details of all our funding is available on devtracker.dfid.gov.uk.