Exacerbation of leprosy during present day treatment.

Experience with a variety of sulfone and other compounds at Carville since 1941 has shown that the majority of treated patients respond with subjective and objective improvement. The degree of bacteriologic improvement does not keep pace with clinical improvement. The result after years of therapy is often a rather stable leprous process of low-grade activity. In a very small number of cases improvement goes on to a state of apparent arrest in which there is not any evidence of clinical activity and M. leprae cannot be demonsb:ated by ordinary means. Until 1948 severe exacerbations of leprosy were not observed among patients receiving treatment at this hospital. It is the purpose of the present paper to present briefly, by case histories and clinical photographs, a few examples of the more serious exacerbations of leprosy which have occurred during the past five years in hospitalized patients during sulfone and other current treatment regimens.