01264nas a2200193   4500000000100000008004100001260001700042653001100059653001200070653001500082653000900097653003000106245005500136300001000191490000700201050003200208520081600240022001401056       1995                            d  c1995 Jan-Mar10aHumans10aleprosy10aRecurrence10aRisk10aWorld Health Organization00aRisk of relapse in leprosy. The Leprosy Unit, WHO.  a13-260 v67  aInfolep Library - available3 a<p>Until the introduction by WHO of the standard regimens using multidrug therapy (MDT) for the treatment of leprosy, there was a general unwillingness to release patients from treatment. This was mainly due to the high risk of relapse after dapsone monotherapy. After almost a decade of MDT implementation and after releasing more than 4 million patients, it was necessary for WHO to review the risk of relapse following WHO-recommended MDT. The results of this study, carried out on more than 20,000 MB and 50,000 PB patients, revealed that the risk of relapse is very low, 0.77% for MB and 1.07% for PB, nine years after stopping MDT. In comparison to dapsone monotherapy, the risk is 10-times lower. Thus, over the last decade, MDT implementation has probably prevented close to half-a-million relapses.</p>  a0254-9395