01566nas a2200229   4500000000100000008004100001260001300042653003000055653001100085653002300096653001200119653001700131100002000148700001600168700001600184245008800200856004100288300001000329490000700339520097600346022001401322       1996                            d  c1996 Jun10aDrug Therapy, Combination10aHumans10aLeprostatic Agents10aleprosy10aTime Factors1 aVijayakumaran P1 aJesudasan K1 aManimozhi N00aFixed-duration therapy (FDT) in multibacillary leprosy; efficacy and complications.  uhttp://ila.ilsl.br/pdfs/v64n2a04.pdf  a123-70 v643 a<p>The World Health Organization (WHO) recommended a multidrug therapy (MDT) regimen for multibacillary (MB) leprosy patients in 1982 which was to be administered for a minimum period of 2 years or until a skin smear was negative for acid-fast bacilli, whichever was later. This regimen contains rifampin, dapsone and clofazimine. A single dose of rifampin was shown to effect a high degree of bacterial killing (99.9%). The combined therapy administered for 2 years may be adequate to bring about "total" bacterial killing and to prevent the emergence of drug resistance and persisters. In this study, 360 smear-positive and previously untreated MB leprosy patients were treated with WHO/MDT for 2 years; 22.8% of these MB patients developed lepra reaction during therapy and 10.7% during surveillance. The bacterial index continued to decline even after termination of fixed-duration therapy. None of these patients relapsed during 886 person-years of surveillance.</p>  a0148-916X