01556nas a2200229 4500000000100000008004100001260001200042100001500054700001500069700001300084700001300097700001500110700001700125700001400142700001200156700001500168245008500183300000900268490000700277520102800284022001401312 1999 d c03/19991 aJianping S1 aWenzhong L1 aGanyun Y1 aWanhui W1 aLiangbin Y1 aXiangsheng C1 aWenbiao H1 aFenwu L1 aShunpeng R00aKinetic changes of antibody to M. leprae and its relation with clinical disease. a52-60 v143 a

A sero-epidemiological survey on 1,833 healthy residents was carried out in 6 villages of a leprosy high-endemic area in Wenshan and Guangnan counties, Yunnan Province. The part of the residents with initially antibody-positive as well as the part of residents with initially antibody-negative have been followed up for 3 consecutive years by serology and clinical examination for studying kinetic changes of antibody to M. leprae and its relation with clinical disease. The results showed that the rates of subclinical infection of leprosy in a high-endemic area are different from village to village, and the risk of developing clinical disease does not associate with subclinical infection rate. It correlates with the number of cured accumulative leprosy cases and active cases within the village. The authors consider that in leprosy high-endemic villages, especially those cropped up new multi-bacillary leprosy cases frequently in recent years, it may be helpful to use serology to detect early leprosy cases.

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