BACKGROUND The prevalence of previously undiagnosed leprosy (PPUL) in the general population was determined to estimate the background level of leprosy in the population and to compare this with registered prevalence and the known PPUL in different levels of contacts of leprosy patients. METHODOLOGY AND PRINCIPAL FINDINGS Multistage cluster sampling including 20 clusters of 1,000 persons each...

Tumor necrosis factor (TNF-alpha) in conjunction with interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) plays an important role in lymphocyte recruitment and granuloma formation in mycobacterial diseases. Lepromatous leprosy infections are typically associated with low to absent T cell responses and the absence of INF-gamma secretion. Chemokines such as IL-8, MCP-1, and MIP-1beta, have also been shown to recruit ne...

Leprosy is a chronic infection caused by Mycobacterium leprae that affects the peripheral nerves, skin, and potentially other organs [1–5]. Although the worldwide prevalence of leprosy has decreased in the era of multi-drug therapy (MDT), the global detection of new cases of leprosy remains a concern, with more than 250,000 new cases of leprosy reported in 2007 [3]. The precise mechanism of tra...

Leprosy-specific humoral reactants were demonstrated by light scatter. Of 132 lepromatous leprosy sera, 70% gave more extensive reactions than 99% of 100 normal sera.

A Mycobacterium leprae-specific phenolic glycolipid antigen was purified from Formalin-fixed liver preserved from an advanced lepromatous leprosy patient. Its chemical and immunological properties were compared with those of phenolic glycolipid-I obtained from M. leprae-infected armadillo liver. Based on the findings that the glycolipids from the two sources have the same thin-layer chromatogra...

The levels of pseudocholinesterase and its nature were studied in 390 leprosy patients and 343 control subjects. The levels of the enzyme in both leprosy patients and normal controls were comparable. The study of the nature of the enzyme by determining its dibucaine number showed that a statistically significant number of lepromatous patients had the atypical variety of the enzyme compared with...

Lucio's phenomenon is an uncommon reaction characterized by severe necrotizing cutaneous lesions that occurs in patients with Lucio's leprosy and lepromatous leprosy. It is considered by some authors as a variant of type 2 or 3 reaction. Death can occur because of blood dyscrasia or sepsis. Precipitating factors include infections, drugs and pregnancy. We report a 31-year-old female patient exh...

The role of immunity in leprosy has attracted great interest. Studies of immune mechanisms in patients with lepromatous leprosy. have indicated that these patients suffer not only from hyporeactive state of cell-mediated immune responses (20), but also from hyperreactivity of antibodymediated immune mechanisms (6). The latter findings are based on tests which include complement fixation, hemagg...

Erythema nodosum leprosum necroticans is an uncommon manifestation of type 2 lepra reaction, encountered in lepromatous and borderline lepromatous cases of leprosy. We report an unusual clinical presentation of necrotic erythema nodosum leprosum in a 9-year-old boy with no pre-existing evidence of leprosy. The lesions resolved completely following multi-bacilliary multi-drug therapy for 12 mont...