New Delhi, Oct 2 : Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Ghulam Nabi Azad will inaugurate the 27th Biennial Conference of Indian Association of Leprologist (IAL) here today.

The conference is being organised by the Department of Dermatology, STD and Leprosy of PGIMER, Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital on “Gandhi Jayanti Day”.

About 500 delegates are expected to attend the conference from all states of the country and abroad.

They include National Leprosy Eradication Programme managers from almost all states and union territories, dermatologists, neurologists, public health specialists, orthopedic surgeons, plastic surgeons, microbiologists, immunologists, pathologists, eye surgeons, medical rehabilitation specialists, medical officers, social scientists, and grass route leprosy workers.

The theme of the conference is “Recent advances in Leprosy”.

DGHS, ICMR, DST, CSIR, ILEP, HKNS, NOVARTIS and GSK are the key partners of this conference.

The eminent leprologists from India and abroad are assembled here to exchange their views, research findings and new ideas with all participants with an ultimate goal of making India and the whole world free from leprosy. (ANI)