Leprosy in Northern India

Abstract

Four hundreds and eighty-four lepromatous leprosy patients (male 399 and female 85) were registered from whole Ghatampur tahsil between 1966 and 1971 at Ghatempur clinic of JALMA, Kanpur district, U. P. state, India.Out of them, 58 %, 279 patients (male 246 and female 33) were treated for the period of over 25 % of the scheduled period. Here, some analysis was reported about those279 patients from the view of treatment period and the effect of treatment.Seventy percent out of 246 male lepromatous patients had turned to negative in slit skin smear examination until the data was collected in 1972-1973, and about female patients the value was below 50 %. Further, about 85 % of male patients were treated for the period of over 50 % of the scheduled period for the treatment, and the number of those patients was corresponded to 46 % of the total male lepromatous leprosy patients living in the Ghatampur tahsil at that time. The value was lower than those reported from the clinics and hospitals of other parts of India.Better effect by the treatment was obtained in the younger patients and from the result it may be said that 'early diagnosis, early treatment' will be emphasized according to the age of the patients, too.When patients showed higher percentages of the treatment period in the scheduled period, they could obtain the negative results of slit skin smear examination more frequently. By the result, the treatment (DDS 25-50 mg per day for the maintenance doses in the ordinary cases) seemed effective for fairly large number of lepromatous patients. And, further, it may be said that, when a patient was treated for over 50% of the scheduled period, he could have a fairly regular treatment.A large number of patients showed negative results in the successive two time slit skin smear examination between 4th and 6th year of the scheduled period. From these results it may be concluded that when male lepromatous leprosy patients can get fairly regular treatment for 6-7 years, about 60-70 % of them will show the negative results in the successive two time slit skin smear examination.When one showed a highly positive result in the slit skin smear examination at starting of treatment, he needed a long period for the treatment, but in some cases, when even lower positive results of it was obtained, much longer treatment period was needed for them to get the negative results of it. Some patients (not many) showed still positive results of it after taking regular treatment for over 7 years.