Leprosy profiles in post-elimination stage: a tertiary care hospital experience.

BACKGROUND: Most countries that were previously highly endemic for leprosy have achieved elimination at the national level.

OBJECTIVES: To find out the pattern, prevalence, and trends of leprosy in the post-elimination stage.

METHODS: A descriptive retrospective cross-sectional study was carried out using the registered records of patients attending the leprosy clinic in Chittagong Medical College Hospital between the periods 2001 and 2011.

RESULTS: The new case detection rate was declining. The prevalence rate was 0.75 at the end of 2011. Of a total of 789 patients, males (74%) outnumbered the females (26%). The age of the patients in the study group ranged from 6 years to 87 years with mean age 35.58 years ± 0.05 SEM. Paucibacillary (PB) and multibacillary (MB) cases were 314 (39.80%) and 475 (60.20%), respectively. MB percentage was increasing more among new cases in the study period, and 119 (15.08%) patients presented with grade 2 deformities. Smear positive cases were 141 (17.87%). Leprosy reaction comprised of 193 (24.46%) type 1, 68 (8.62%) type 2, and 97 (12.29%) neuritis cases.

LIMITATIONS: This is a retrospective study from a single tertiary health center.

CONCLUSION: MB cases with grade 2 deformities are in an upward trend, and rates of children are declining. Developing reinforced new therapies to curb reactions, deformities are very important and contact tracing, especially of children, is essential. Domiciliary treatment needs to be made available to ensure early diagnosis.