Leprosy now occurs mainly in resource-poor countries in tropical and warm temperate regions. Contrary to a widely believed myth, nowadays leprosy is a fully curable disease. A multidrug therapy (MDT) based on the combination of the antibiotics dapsone, rifampicin, and clofazimine was introduced in 1982 after dapsone-resistant strains appeared and spread. MDT proved highly efficacious in killing the bacteria without inducing resistance, although the optimal length of treatment and associated relapse rates are still controversial.With such a powerful weapon at hand, a massive international effort was launched to eradicate leprosy worldwide. In 1991, the World Health Assembly adopted the target of “elimination of leprosy as a public health problem by the year 2000”. Elimination was defined as a reduction in the prevalence of patients with leprosy receiving antimicrobial therapy at a given time to less than 1 per 10,000 population. It was expected that by reducing the prevalence to this level, the transmission of M. leprae would be interrupted, leading to the gradual extinction of the disease. Since its introduction, some 13 to 14 million people have been cured with MDT (made available free of cost by the Sasakawa Foundation and then by Novartis), and full control of the disease (as assessed by prevalence rate) has been officially achieved in 112 of the 122 countries where leprosy was endemic in 1985.