01936nas a2200253   4500000000100000008004100001260001700042653001200059653003000071653002200101653001100123653002300134653001200157653001300169100001500182700001700197700001200214245008100226300000900307490000700316050003200323520131300355022001401668       1987                            d  c1987 Jan-Mar10aDapsone10aDrug Therapy, Combination10aFollow-Up Studies10aHumans10aLeprostatic Agents10aleprosy10aRifampin1 aGanapati R1 aRevankar C R1 aPai R R00aThree years assessment of multidrug therapy in multibacillary leprosy cases.  a44-90 v59  aInfolep Library - available3 a<p>Analysis of Bacteriological Index (BI) of 584 multibacillary leprosy patients who had completed multidrug therapy (MDT) as per the recommendations of World Health Organization (WHO) and Indian Association of Leprologists (IAL) showed smear conversion rates of 56% at 24 doses and 66% at 36 doses. Taking BI as a parameter of judgement, the results indicate distinct improvement over the performance achieved through dapsone monotherapy during earlier period. IAL regimen consisting of daily initial administration of rifampicin for 21 days did not show any distinct advantage over WHO regimen. Bacteriological decline was uniformally noticeable in all patients though in cases with high initial BI, smear conversion rate was much less. All the six patients with BI more than 5, and 59 patients (70%) with BI 1 to 4.9 and 87 patients (64%) with BI 3 to 3.9 have not been rendered negative even after three years of treatment. On the contrary seventeen patients whose skin smears were still positive after receiving 24 supervised doses became bacteriologically negative subsequently, and remained so though chemotherapy was stopped. Such studies on large number of patients for a longer period is essential to establish whether chemotherapy should necessarily be continued up to the point of negativity.</p>  a0254-9395