A Marshall Islands health official says the health service is doing the best it can to deal with leprosy in the outer islands.
The Ministry of Health has announced the discovery of 33 new cases on three islands in a report on the year's health activities to the United States government.
The Assistant Secretary for outer islands health care services says a training programme for those working in the republic's 54 health centres to detect and treat leprosy has been running since last year.
Russell Edwards says the new training is likely reduce the incidence of the disease.
"Training that we have now is higher than the training that we had before so I'm kind of feeling that when they graduate they're more equipped."
