Dr. Shaik Khader Noordeen (S.K. Noordeen), Padma Shri
Leprologist & Architect of the Global Leprosy Elimination Programme

In a quiet corner of a leprosy hospital in Tamil Nadu, a young doctor looked at the patients who had been cast aside by society.

“These are not just cases,” he told a colleague. “They are people who have been abandoned by stigma. If science can cure the disease, we must also cure the fear that surrounds it.”

That conviction shaped the life of Dr. Shaik Khader Noordeen, the Indian leprologist who helped turn leprosy from a dreaded, neglected disease into a solvable public-health problem.

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Born on 1 July 1933 in Keeranur, then in Madras Presidency, Noordeen studied medicine at Stanley Medical College in Madras, earning his MBBS. He specialised in public health, obtaining a Diploma in Public Health from the All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health in Calcutta, and later a Master of Public Health from the University of Michigan, USA, in 1963.

He began his career in India and rose to lead the Central Leprosy Training and Research Institute in Tamil Nadu. His work there caught the attention of the World Health Organization. In 1979 he joined WHO’s Leprosy Programme in Geneva, serving successively as Medical Officer, Chief Medical Officer, and finally as Director of the Action Programme for the Elimination of Leprosy from 1994 to 1998.

During these critical years he played a central role in promoting and rolling out multidrug therapy (MDT) worldwide—the combination of drugs that remains the cornerstone of leprosy treatment today. In 1991 he was instrumental in the adoption of World Health Assembly Resolution 44.9, which committed WHO to the global elimination of leprosy as a public-health problem by the year 2000. Under his leadership the programme made dramatic progress, sharply reducing the global burden of the disease.

After retiring from WHO he continued to serve the cause. He became President of the International Leprosy Association, founding Trustee and Chair of the Sasakawa-India Leprosy Foundation, and a member of the Technical Resource Group of India’s National Leprosy Eradication Programme. He also edited the Indian Journal of Leprosy for a decade.

In recognition of his lifelong contribution, the Government of India awarded him the Padma Shri in 2009. He had earlier received the International Gandhi Award in 1996.

Colleagues remembered him as a quiet, determined man whose passion never wavered.

“Leprosy was once a disease of the forgotten,” he would say. “Our task was to prove that with science, political will and compassion, no one need be forgotten.”

Dr. Shaik Khader Noordeen passed away in Chennai on 17 August 2021 at the age of 88. A biography published later called him the “Architect of the Global Leprosy Elimination Programme.” The millions of people cured through multidrug therapy and the sharp decline in leprosy cases around the world stand as the lasting testament to his vision and dedication.

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