02785nas a2200253   4500000000100000008004100001260004000042653001000082653001200092653001700104653002700121653001100148653001200159653001000171100002000181700001800201700001800219700001100237245008100248856009800329300001300427490000700440520208400447       2023                            d  bHind Kusht Nivaran SanghaNew Delhi10aChild10aLeprosy10aDisabilities10aTertiary Care Hospital10aRajkot10aGujarat10aIndia1 aChodavadia N. H1 aRaghavon U. N1 aBhuptani N. V1 aPatel 00aChildhood Leprosy: A 11 Year Retrospective Study at a Tertiary Care Hospital  uhttps://www.ijl.org.in/published-articles/29092023214138/5-Chodavadia-et-al-203-211-final.pdf  a203-20110 v953 a<p>Childhood leprosy is considered as an important marker of the status of any ongoing leprosy control programme, as it is an indicator of active disease transmission in the community. Despite achievement of leprosy elimination status of leprosy at the National level in 2005, the reported prevalence and incidence of childhood cases continues to be high in several areas. To get an overview of child leprosy cases in this area, a retrospective analysis of 11‑year records of leprosy patients aged lesser or equal to 14 years was carried out. This study is based on cases who attended the tertiary care hospital of Rajkot, Gujarat, India was carried out from January 2012 to December 2022. A total of 1034 leprosy patients attended this hospital during this period, of these 47 (4.5%) belonged to the childhood / juvenile age group whereas remaining 987 (95.5%) were adult and adolescent patients. 14 (29.7%) of these child leprosy children had a family history of leprosy disease. The most common disease sub type observed among these patients was borderline tuberculoid (34%) and tuberculoid leprosy (31.9%). Paucibacillary disease was observed in 55.3% of cases while multibacillary disease was noted in the rest of 44.7% of cases. 13 (27.6%) were BL/LL with slit skin smear positive for acid fast bacilli some even with 5+ BI which shows late diagnosis. Overall, the lag period from the appearance of symptoms to diagnosis was one year. These are not desirable indicators. In this cohort two cases (4.25 %) had type 2 reactions and 3 patients (6.4 %) reported with disabilities. This proportion of child cases is lower than national average and reported figures of NLEP from this area. 53% of these cases were migrants/immigrant (one case). To achieve the targets of zero disabilities and zero transmission more efforts are required at community level to ensure access to early diagnosis, appropriate management to locals as well migrants/ immigrants. Other transmission interruption strategies like chemoprophylaxis/ immunoprophylaxis or both need due consideration.</p>