@article{306,
  keywords = {China, Drug Therapy, Combination, Follow-Up Studies, Humans, Leprostatic Agents, leprosy, National Health Programs, Recurrence, Risk Factors, World Health Organization},
  author = {Chen X S and Li W Z and Jiang C and Ye G Y},
  title = {Studies on risk of leprosy relapses in China: relapses after treatment with multidrug therapy.},
  abstract = {<p>Based upon the data from the Chinese National System for Leprosy Surveillance, this paper reports on the relapses in 47,276 leprosy patients cured by or released from WHO-recommended multidrug therapy (WHO/MDT). The overall relapse rate was 0.73/1000 patient-years (PY). There was a statistically significant difference in the relapse rates of WHO/MDT-MB (0.61/1000 PY) and WHO/MDT-PB (1.04/1000 PY) (chi 2 = 15.7, p < 0.01) patients. For multibacillary (MB) patients, the relapse rate in patients treated with fixed-duration MDT (0.56/1000 PY) was comparable with that in patients treated with MDT until skin-smear negativity (0.73/1000 PY) (chi 2 = 2.20, p > 0.05). Our present study suggests that fixed-duration MDT is a cost-effective regimen for the treatment of leprosy in China. The present results also show that relapse of leprosy is acceptably low and has not yet become a serious clinical or public health problem but, based upon the incubation of relapse in MDT patients, it is necessary to encourage annual follow up for at least 5 years for paucibacillary (PB) and 10 years for MB patients after being released from WHO/MDT.</p>},
  year = {1999},
  journal = {International journal of leprosy and other mycobacterial diseases : official organ of the International Leprosy Association},
  volume = {67},
  pages = {379-87},
  month = {1999 Dec},
  issn = {0148-916X},
  url = {http://ila.ilsl.br/pdfs/v67n4a02.pdf},
  language = {eng},
}