@article{8671,
  keywords = {Adolescent, Adult, Aged, Anti-Bacterial Agents, Dapsone, Drug Therapy, Combination, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Humans, Leprostatic Agents, leprosy, Male, Middle Aged, Patient Compliance, Recurrence, Treatment Outcome, Young Adult},
  author = {Jing Z and Zhang R and Zhou D and Chen J},
  title = {Twenty five years follow up of MB leprosy patients retreated with a modified MDT regimen after a full course of dapsone mono-therapy.},
  abstract = {<p><b>BACKGROUND: </b>The relentless emergence of dapsone resistance amongst M. leprae threatened leprosy control programmes, and increased the relapse rate of patients cured with dapsone monotherapy.</p><p><b>OBJECTIVE: </b>The study aimed to analyse the effect on the relapse rate of dapsone-cured multibacillary (MB) leprosy patients, of re-treatment, using a multidrug therapy (MDT) regimen which differed from the WHO recommended regimen.</p><p><b>DESIGN: </b>794 MB leprosy patients who had been released from treatment after dapsone monotherapy were selected, amongst them 657 were re-treated for 1 year using the modified multidrug therapy regimen (mMDT) including rifampicin, clofazimine and dapsone, and 137 patients were observed as control cases.</p><p><b>RESULTS: </b>The regimen was well tolerated with good compliance: 620 patients completed re-treatment with mild side effects and a low incidence of leprosy reactions. There was a statistically significant difference between the relapse rates of re-treated and control groups (chi squaredf = 57.44, P < 0.001). Furthermore, the relapses in the re-treated group were significantly more likely to be later than those in the control group (t = 25.62, P < 0.001).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS: </b>Re-treatment with this modified regimen is acceptable and can reduce the risk of early relapse in dapsone-cured patients. The problem of persisters causing late relapse is likely to remain.</p>},
  year = {2009},
  journal = {Leprosy review},
  volume = {80},
  pages = {170-6},
  month = {2009 Jun},
  issn = {0305-7518},
  url = {https://leprosyreview.org/article/80/2/17-0176},
  language = {eng},
}