@article{9227,
  keywords = {Adult, Case-Control Studies, Child, Female, HIV Infections, HIV Seropositivity, Humans, leprosy, Malawi, Male, Middle Aged, Odds Ratio, Risk Factors},
  author = {Ponnighaus J M and Mwanjasi L J and Fine PE and Shaw M A and Turner A C and Oxborrow S M and Lucas S B and Jenkins P A and Sterne J A and Bliss L},
  title = {Is HIV infection a risk factor for leprosy?},
  abstract = {<p>A case control study was undertaken during 1988 and 1989 within the framework of the LEPRA Evaluation Project (LEP)/Karonga Prevention Trail (KPT) in Karonga District, northern Malawi, to investigate whether HIV infection is a risk factor for clinical leprosy. Cases were newly ascertained, biopsy-confirmed, incident leprosy patients older than 14 years of age. Controls were selected from the computer data base on over 170,000 people who form the basis of LEP/KPT. They were matched for sex, age, and area of residence. HIV seropositivity rates were 1.8% (2/112) for incident leprosy cases and 2.4% (24/1011) for controls. The Mantel Haenszel odds ratio is 0.6 (95% confidence interval 0.1-3.3). Thus, no evidence for an association between HIV infection and leprosy incidence has been observed in this population. In a parallel investigation, an odds ratio of 7.4% (95% confidence interval 3.3-16.7) was found for 102 microscopy- and/or culture-confirmed, incident pulmonary tuberculosis cases in the same population during 1989, a result similar to those obtained elsewhere in Africa. Among leprosy relapses, 16.7% (2/12) were HIV positive.</p>
},
  year = {1991},
  journal = {International journal of leprosy and other mycobacterial diseases : official organ of the International Leprosy Association},
  volume = {59},
  pages = {221-8},
  month = {1991 Jun},
  issn = {0148-916X},
  url = {http://ila.ilsl.br/pdfs/v59n2a01.pdf},
  doi = {10.1136/bmj.c3651},
  language = {eng},
}