01935nas a2200289   4500000000100000008004100001260001200042653001200054653001900066653002500085653002500110653001500135653003000150100001400180700001500194700001300209700001200222700001600234700001600250700001700266245005100283856007600334300001000410490000700420520120400427022001401631       2020                            d  c01/202010aleprosy10amultibacillary10aleprosy/transmission10adisease transmission10ainfectious10apolymerase chain reaction1 aFuentes J1 aJiménez J1 aUrueta G1 aFadul S1 aMeléndez E1 aGuerrero MI1 aRodríguez G00aLeprosy in the Colombian island of Providencia  uhttps://revistabiomedica.org/index.php/biomedica/article/view/4974/4376  a26-310 v403 a<p>San Andrés and Providencia are Colombian islands in the Caribbean Sea. San Andrés has 68,283 inhabitants and has registered cases of leprosy in immigrants from continental Colombia. Providencia has 5,037 inhabitants and historically health programs did not have records of the disease, but in 2009 two cases of multibacillary histoid leprosy were confirmed and, subsequently, another two, which represents a prevalence of 8 cases per 10,000 inhabitants and places the island as a hyperendemic site for leprosy. Initially, a 14-year-old girl with histoid leprosy was diagnosed and, exploring this case, her father was diagnosed with the same clinical form of leprosy. Recently, a new intrafamilial patient with multibacillary leprosy and an extrafamilial case of a girl with undetermined leprosy were detected.
The objective of this study was to present to the scientific community and the public health officers these clinical cases and to draw the attention of the sanitary authorities on the necessity of establishing continuous programs of leprosy epidemiological surveillance on the island using the new tools available in the Programa de Control de la Lepra (Leprosy Control Program).</p>  a2590-7379