Multi-drug therapy (MDT) and Leprosy Elimination Campaigns (LEC) are the major strategies for eliminating leprosy. We report the results of a LEC conducted in 2006 in Qazvin. A total of 1987 individuals (1379 household contacts of 319 registered leprosy patients and 608 people from 3 endemic villages with a high prevalence of leprosy) were examined for detection of new cases of leprosy. All new...

The attitudes of nurses toward leprosy are studied and in this paper. The findings show that their knowledge of leprosy is lacking and that they also fear leprosy. This study recommends that leprosy should be included in the basic nursing curriculum in order to increase awareness and to decrease the stigma of leprosy.

Leprosy remains a public health problem in Brazil with new case incidence exceeding World Health Organization (WHO) goals in endemic clusters throughout the country. Migration can facilitate movement of disease between endemic and non-endemic areas, and has been considered a possible factor in continued leprosy incidence in Brazil. A study was conducted to investigate migration as a risk factor...

BACKGROUND Interpretation of Leprosy as a sickness differs among society. The set of beliefs, knowledge and perceptions towards a disease play a vital role in the construction of stigma towards a disease. The main purpose of this study was to explore the extent and correlates of the perceived stigma towards leprosy in the community living close to the leprosy colony in Non Somboon region of Kho...

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) pandemic has disproportionately affected many developing countries including Nigeria especially where dermatoses like leprosy is endemic. Though leprosy is an infectious disease, the risk of developing it is low. It is estimated that about 16,000 people are infected with leprosy annually. Early in the HIV epidemic, researchers feared that HIV infection wou...

Leprosy is an infectious disease of slow evolution, high infectivity and low pathogenicity, which presents dermato-neurological signs symptoms. The change in the sexual pattern caused by female dysfunction a complication that can be experienced women with leprosy, causing negative impact on quality life. objective this study was to identify perceived function factors attributed leprosy. This de...

Skin and nerve biopsies from 81 patients clinically suspected to have leprosy were studied. Histologically 54% of the patients showed leprosy. Both nerve and skin biopsies were histologically diagnostic of leprosy in 64% of these cases while 32% were diagnostic in the nerve but not skin biopsy. In the 11 patients with multibacillary leprosy (BI greater than or equal to 2) a multibacillary pictu...

One of the resolutions adopted by the July-August 2004 56th session of the United Nations Subcommission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights (www.un.org/news/press/docs/2004/ hcrn110/doc.htm) was the call for a working paper on ‘Discrimination against leprosy victims and their families’. The term ‘discrimination’ embraces most, but not all, facets of the concept and impact of leprosy...

INTRODUCTION Leprosy is caused by Mycobacterium leprae and manifests as damage to the skin and peripheral nerves. The disease is dreaded because it causes deformities, blindness and disfigurement. Worldwide, 2 million people are estimated to be disabled by leprosy. Multidrug therapy is highly effective in curing leprosy, but treating the nerve damage is much more difficult. The World Health Ass...

Mycobacterium leprae, the aetiological agent of leprosy in humans, gives rise to a chronic granulomatous disease that affects primarily the skin and peripheral nerves, and secondarily some internal organs such as the testis and the eye; viscera are seldom involved. Depending on host resistance, leprosy may present as a benign disease (tuberculoid leprosy) or as a malignant disease (lepromatous ...