Reputed to be one of the oldest public health institutions in post Independent India, the Leprosy Hospital was established at Kangdapith by the Bombay Government in 1949. Since then, the hospital is being managed by the Salesian Missionaries of Mary Immaculate (SMMI), founded in 1872 in France.

Later the hospital shifted to its present location. "Although the Gujarat Government had started funding the hospital soon after the Gujarat State was formed in 1960, its (the hospital's) management right from the administration to the care of the patients is still looked after by the sisters belonging to the SMMI," the Leprosy Hospital lady superintendent Sister Leena said. She said all the sisters currently looking after the hospital's management are Indian.

"The 150-bed Leprosy Hospital, which is one of the biggest referral hospitals for leprosy patients in Gujarat, is equipped with all the facilities ranging from laboratory, diagnosis, physiotherapay, reconstructive surgery and rehabilitation," Leena said. She added that patients not only from different areas of Gujarat, but from as far as Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh are also referred to the Leprosy Hospital.

She said ever since the effective multi-drug-therapy (MDT) was introduced in India in 1982, the average occupancy of the hospital has gone down from 120 patients to 75 at any given time.

The hospital's medical officer Dr Nain Jani said during the last two years number of patients undergoing MDT in the State had drastically dropped from 18,000 per annum to 7,200 per annum. "In other words, the leprosy prevalence rate has reduced from 3 per cent per 10,000 population to 1.7 per cent per 10,000 population," he said.