Effective leprosy control programme may be indicated by all of the following except –

Evaluation off programme: There are two main types of indicators in leprosy control a)  Operational indicators These are related to case-finding, treatment, relapses & disabilities for e.g. Relapse rate - One of the best indicators of the efficacy of drug regimen Case detection ratio - No. of cases registered / no. of cases estimated. Proportion of children among newly detected cases. Proportion of multibacillary cases on regular treatment during the year. Proportion of female cases among newly detected cases. Treatment completion/cure rate. Proportion of new cases presenting with grade 2 disability/impairment at the time of diagnosis. Proportion of treatment defaulters. Proportion of patients who develop new/additional disability during MDT. b)   Epidemiological indicators: To assess the impact of the actions taken with regard to the problem reduction. Incidence rate - most sensitive index of transmission of disease. Only index for measuring the effectiveness of the measure taken i.e. reduction of transmission. Prevalence - This provides a measure of case load & is useful in planning of the treatment services. High new case detection rate comes under operational indicators which shows that the Leprosy Control Programme is effective in detecting new cases from the already pool of leprosy cases. Thus these new cases could be treated to reduce further transmission of disease.