Ocular leprosy in Uganda.

Leprosy has been noted to cause more ocular complications than any other systemic bacterial disease (Mendonsa de Barros, 1946). Before the advent of sulphone treatment almost every leprosy patient sooner or later developed an ocular complication (Prendergast, 1940; MendonSa de Barros, I946), but modern treatment has reduced the incidence of ocular complications judging from the more recent reports (Holmes, I957; Chatterjee and Chaudhury, I964; McLaren, Shaw, and Dalley, I96I; Crawford, 1969; Ticho and Ben Sira, I970). Nevertheless, leprosy still causes much morbidity in all countries where it is endemic. The incidence of the ocular complications of leprosy varies from one country to another, because of differences in the availability of and the amenability of the people to modern treatment, the stage of the disease at which treatment is commenced, and the relative frequency of the main clinical types of the disease. Where there is more lepromatous than tuberculoid leprosy, the incidence of ocular complications tends to be higher (Chatterjee and Chaudhury, I964). The range of the age of the people screened may also lead to variation, as the proportion of ocular involvement increases with age. Furthermore, there also seem to be regional variations, since it has been noted that lepromatous ocular lesions are more common in temperate than in tropical areas (Doull, I959). The ocular complications ofleprosy in Uganda have not been reported before. Although the incidence of the various ocular lesions broadly follows the general pattern, the data from this survey lends support to findings from other parts ofAfrica, that certain eye lesions are uncommon in this region.