tailieunhanh - Increasing trends of leprosy – Still a public health challenge

Screening of the patient’s family for leprosy is an important step to reduce the incidence of leprosy and also helps family members to get early treatment after skin smear test positivity. Leprosy is an endemic disease in underdeveloped or developing countries, where still a large number of cases have been reporting. Here we tried to produce the data related to leprosy in the last four years, recorded from a tertiary care hospital. A total of 619 suspected leprosy cases of both sexes were included in this study. Data related to this study was collected from laboratory registers. Privacy and confidentiality were maintained. All 619 smears of suspected leprosy cases were stained by modified ZN stain and reported. Out of 619 patient smears, 100 were leprosy positive by Modified ZN stain. Positivity of leprosy in 2018 was , in 2017 it was in 2016 leprae cases were and in 2015 it was . Majority of the cases were observed in the age group of 21-40 years followed by 41-60 years. In 2018 positive cases of leprosy among children below 10 years of age and geriatric age group was and respectively. More research works on HD helps us to eliminate leprae bacilli and early diagnosis of HD along with education programmes aids in preventing HD associated disability. | Increasing trends of leprosy – Still a public health challenge