@article{30113,
  keywords = {Ethiopia, Adolescents, Child, Hospitals, leprosy, Multibacillary, rural},
  author = {Ramos J and Ortiz-Martínez S and Lemma D and Petros M and Ortiz-Martínez C and Tesfamariam A and Reyes F and Belinchón I},
  title = {Epidemiological and Clinical Characteristics of Children and Adolescents with Leprosy Admitted Over 16 Years at a Rural Hospital in Ethiopia: A Retrospective Analysis.},
  abstract = {<p><strong>Aim: </strong>To analyse differences in children and adolescents aged ≤18 years admitted to the leprosy ward in a rural Ethiopian hospital &gt;16 years.</p>

<p><strong>Methods: </strong>We retrospectively collected data from leprosy admission registry books on patients with leprosy who were admitted to a referral hospital from September 2000 to September 2016.</p>

<p><strong>Results: </strong>There were 2129 admissions for leprosy during the study period: 180 (8.4%) patients were s ≤ 18 years old. Of these, 98 (54.4%) were male and 82 (45.6%) were female. The proportion of new diagnoses in children and adolescents was 31.7%, significantly higher than in adults (11.7%; p  &lt; 0.001). There were also significant differences in the prevalence of lepromatous ulcers (46.9 vs. 61.7%), leprosy reaction (29.4 vs. 13.0%) and neuritis (16.9 vs.5.3%) between these age groups.</p>

<p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>There were more new diagnoses, leprosy reactions and neuritis, and fewer lepromatous ulcers, in children and adolescents compared with adults, with younger patients being referred more frequently to reference centres.</p>
},
  year = {2017},
  journal = {Journal of tropical pediatrics},
  issn = {1465-3664},
  url = {https://academic.oup.com/tropej/article/64/3/195/3884431},
  doi = {10.1093/tropej/fmx048},
  language = {eng},
}