WHO has called upon South Asian countries, including India, which accounted for 60 per cent of leprosy cases worldwide in 2015, to make more efforts and adopt a multi-sectoral approach to end the scourge. <br/><br/>Asking these countries to focus on preventing disabilities in children, WHO's Regional Director Poonam Khetrapal Singh said, of the new cases, 8.9 per cent were children and 6.7 per cent had visible deformities. <br/>Ahead of the World Leprosy Day on Sunday, Mrs. Singh said in New Delhi that laws or regulations that sanction or abet discrimination against persons suffering from leprosy should be repealed. <br/><br/>She said, despite being eliminated globally as a public health problem in 2000, leprosy continues to mar the lives of individuals and impacts families and communities. <br/><br/>WHO's South-East Asia Region comprises Bangladesh, Bhutan, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, India, Indonesia, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Timor-Leste.