time. The project continues to this day. The Blue Peter Public Health Centre, located in Hyderabad, was officially inaugurated in December 1999. It is a research centre as well as training and treatment facility for those with leprosy. It offers a unique combination of high-quality research and clinical practice. In 2000 LEPRA introduced health education vans in India. Services Diagnosing and treating leprosy One of Lepra's core activities is the diagnosis and treatment of leprosy. When a doctor, health worker or health volunteer suspects someone has leprosy, Lepra will test skin sensations to determine whether the person can feel their skin being touched with cotton wool, feather or a ballpoint. Another way to determine leprosy infection is by taking a skin smear from a nodule on the skin. The skin smear is only positive, however, if many leprosy bacilli are present, meaning that the patient is heavily infected. Leprosy is treated by multi drug therapy (MDT), a combination of Dapsone and Rifampicin for six months in the case of low infection ("paucibillary"). For higher infection levels ("multi-bacillary"), Clofazimine is added to the MDT and the treatment period is lengthened to 12 months. Early diagnoses and active case finding Lepra also recognises the importance of early detection of leprosy. Their active case finding method involves a screening of people around an infected person. While previous methods focused specifically on people sharing a household with a person affected by leprosy, Lepra focuses on both household members and 20-25 households around an index-case and conducts systematic screening of communities, schools or other places where endemicity is thought to be high. Lymphatic filariasis Lymphatic filariasis is a parasitic disease contracted through the bite of an infected mosquito. It causes swelling of body parts and altering of the immune system.Although there is no cure for LF, Lepra implements a number of strategies to make the disease manageable for those affected. They travel to remote communities to teach self-care techniques to reduce swelling and pain. If feet are already severely deformed, Lepra provides people with custom-made protective footwear. Health education and health worker training In many of the places where Lepra works, basic health information is often lacking, both for the general public and for health workers. Lepra tries to remedy this by providing health education and health training. Lepra uses health education vans to bring health information to people living in remote and rural areas.