Abstract
Leprosy control programs would benefit expressively from an easy method to estimate disease prevalence and to assess the effect of leprosy control measures on disease prevalence. Determination of the seroprevalence of antibodies to PGL-I through school children surveys might be a useful indicator of leprosy prevalence at the district level. To investigate whether seropositivity rates could be related to leprosy detection rates and whether seropositivity could be used as a proximal indicator to predict the leprosy incidence in other areas, 7,073 school children in three different leprosy-endemic states in Brazil were tested. The results show a widely varying distribution of seropositivity in the communities independent of the number of leprosy cases detected. Seroprevalence was significantly lower at private schools. No differences in the patterns of seropositivity between ELISA and dipstick were observed. No correlation between leprosy detection rate and seropositivity rates could be established.
Highlights
Resumo Os programas de controle da hanseníase se beneficiariam de um método fácil para estimar prevalência e avaliar o impacto das ações de controle na prevalência da doença
It was shown that the determination of the seroprevalence of antibodies to PGL-I through school children surveys might be a useful indicator of lepr osy prevalence at the district level in a leprosyendemic area in Indonesia[16]
Leprosy control programs would benefit from an easy method to estimate disease prevalence and to assess the effect of leprosy control measures on the prevalence of the disease
Summary
Resumo Os programas de controle da hanseníase se beneficiariam de um método fácil para estimar prevalência e avaliar o impacto das ações de controle na prevalência da doença. A determinação da soroprevalência de anticorpos contra PGL-I através de estudos com crianças em idade escolar foi sugerida como indicador útil da taxa de prevalência da hanseníase a nível municipal.Para investigar se a soropositividade estaria associada aos coeficientes de detecção da hanseníase e se poderia ser usada como indicador da prevalência em outras áreas, 7.073 crianças em três estados endêmicos de hanseníase no Brasil foram testadas. Despite efforts to eliminate leprosy as a public health problem, the registered numbers of newly diagnosed patients worldwide increased from 571,792 detected cases in 1990 to 755,305 in 199820, representing an increase of 32% in the last decade. In communities where leprosy has been eliminated as a public health problem, less than one leprosy case would be diagnosed per every 10,000 people[18]. It was shown that the determination of the seroprevalence of antibodies to PGL-I through school children surveys might be a useful indicator of lepr osy prevalence at the district level in a leprosyendemic area in Indonesia[16]
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