OBJECTIVES To study sociodemographic profiles, perceptions about leprosy and health seeking patterns among adult leprosy patients and parents of children with leprosy detected through a prevalence survey conducted earlier, in rural areas of Panvel tehsil in Maharashtra. METHODS The study was cross-sectional and used mixed (qualitative and quantitative) methods. Of the 97 confirmed rural lepro...

OBJECTIVE To document clinical status and disabilities among live treated leprosy patients. METHODS The observational, descriptive study was carried out at the Leprosy Field Clinic, Diamer, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan, over a period of six months from April 1, 2009 to September 30, 2009. All leprosy patients of either gender and all ages presenting at the centre were included. Diagnosis was ma...

INTRODUCTION The clinical outcomes of leprosy include complications such as physical disabilities and deformities that vary according to the degree of impairment of nerve trunks. Knowledge of the factors that lead to the development of these complications is important for disability prevention programs. This study aimed to evaluate clinical factors associated with the occurrence of physical dis...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate musculoskeletal involvement and autoantibodies in pediatric leprosy patients. METHODS 50 leprosy patients and 47 healthy children and adolescents were assessed according to musculoskeletal manifestations (arthralgia, arthritis, and myalgia), musculoskeletal pain syndromes (juvenile fibromyalgia, benign joint hypermobility syndrome, myofascial syndrome, and tendinitis), a...

BACKGROUND Serological tests can be important tools to assist in the diagnosis of leprosy and can contribute to an earlier diagnosis. The aim of this study was to evaluate the antibody responses against phenolic glycolipid-1 (PGL-1), natural disaccharide linked to human serum albumin via an octyl (NDO-HSA), Leprosy IDRI Diagnostic-1 (LID-1) and natural disaccharide octyl--Leprosy IDRI Diagnosti...

BACKGROUND Poverty has long been considered a risk factor for leprosy and is related to nutritional deficiencies. In this study, we aim to investigate the association between poverty-related diet and nutrition with leprosy. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS In rural leprosy-endemic areas in Indonesia, we conducted a household-based case-control study using two controls for each case patient (100...

The subject of this paper is health and ethnic inequalities in Mozambique, with special reference to leprosy. It argued that the policies strategies adopted colonial post-colonial periods led an unequal distribution not only certain diseases but also infrastructures. regime, by neglecting creating ineffective leprosaria central northern ‘ethnicized’ Lazarus disease, a fact corroborated its curr...

‘Morbidity control’ is a recurring theme of a recent WHO report entitled “Global strategy for further reducing the leprosy burden and sustaining leprosy control activities: 2006–2010”. While the approach seems rational, based on our current tools for controlling leprosy (i.e., timely detection of new cases, treatment with effective chemotherapy, prevention of disabilities and rehabilitation), i...

Can leprosy be eliminated? This paper considers the question against the background of the WHO programme to eliminate leprosy. In 1991 the World Health Assembly set a target of eliminating leprosy as a public health problem by 2000. Elimination was defined as reaching a prevalence of < 1 case per 10 000 people. The elimination programme has been successful in delivering highly effective antibio...

Leprosy remains prevalent in Brazil. ErbB2 is a receptor for leprosy bacilli entering Schwann cells, which mediates Mycobacterium leprae-induced demyelination and the ERBB2 gene lies within a leprosy susceptibility locus on chromosome 17q11-q21. To determine whether polymorphisms at the ERBB2 locus contribute to this linkage peak, three haplotype tagging single nucleotide polymorphisms (tag-SNP...