TY - JOUR KW - Adolescent KW - Age Factors KW - Child KW - Child, Preschool KW - China KW - Female KW - Humans KW - Infant KW - leprosy KW - Male KW - Mass Screening KW - Prevalence KW - Retrospective Studies AU - Chen X S AU - Li W Z AU - Jiang C AU - Ye G Y AB -

Leprosy in children forms an important link in the natural evolution and the epidemic profile of the disease. The study was undertaken on 1208 child cases detected during the years 1986-1997 in China. The number of child cases constituted 3-4 per cent of the total during this period although the incidence rates decreased dramatically. The detection rate significantly increased with age, and the average rate of 0.027 per 100,000 population was much lower than that in adults. In the pediatric cases, children in the younger age group had a higher prevalence of solitary lesions and lower prevalence of reactions and disabilities than the older group. A total of 70.01 per cent of the affected cases were infected by intra-familial contact, 35.60 per cent were detected by contact examination, and another 22.86 per cent by active surveys. The results of the study suggest that leprosy in children is not a public health problem at the present in China, but the regular screening of children in the family of patients is still one of the important ways to detect child cases and should be recommended.

BT - Journal of tropical pediatrics C1 - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10996981?dopt=Abstract CN - CHEN 2000 DA - 2000 08 DO - 10.1093/tropej/46.4.207 IS - 4 J2 - J. Trop. Pediatr. LA - eng N2 -

Leprosy in children forms an important link in the natural evolution and the epidemic profile of the disease. The study was undertaken on 1208 child cases detected during the years 1986-1997 in China. The number of child cases constituted 3-4 per cent of the total during this period although the incidence rates decreased dramatically. The detection rate significantly increased with age, and the average rate of 0.027 per 100,000 population was much lower than that in adults. In the pediatric cases, children in the younger age group had a higher prevalence of solitary lesions and lower prevalence of reactions and disabilities than the older group. A total of 70.01 per cent of the affected cases were infected by intra-familial contact, 35.60 per cent were detected by contact examination, and another 22.86 per cent by active surveys. The results of the study suggest that leprosy in children is not a public health problem at the present in China, but the regular screening of children in the family of patients is still one of the important ways to detect child cases and should be recommended.

PY - 2000 SP - 207 EP - 11 T2 - Journal of tropical pediatrics TI - Leprosy in children: a retrospective study in China, 1986-1997. VL - 46 SN - 0142-6338 ER -