01952nas a2200181   4500000000100000008004100001260001000042653001900052100001600071700001700087700001800104245006200122856009800184300001200282490000700294520145500301022001401756       2022                            d  bLepra10aGeneral Energy1 aQuilter EEV1 aLockwood DNJ1 aRuth Butlin C00aRising percentage of new female leprosy cases since 2004  uhttps://leprosyreview.org/admin/public/api/lepra/website/getDownload/6394536aafaac145ae6bd748  a364-3690 v933 a<p>Objectives</p>

<p>We determined the male and female ratio of new leprosy cases detected over 15 years, allowing future exploration of inequalities pertaining to biological sex and social aspects of gender, which negatively impact women.</p>

<p>Methods</p>

<p>We extracted sex-disaggregated data from the annual Weekly Epidemiological Record (WER) Global leprosy situation reports, from 2004 to 2020, to determine the temporal pattern of new cases detected, by gender.</p>

<p>Results</p>

<p>Sex disaggregated leprosy data was only consistently reported in WER papers from 2004. The absolute number of female cases detected has remained static over the last 15 years (80,000–90,000 new cases annually). A 56.2% reduction in the number of male cases was observed from 2004–2019, whereas amongst females the reduction was only 37.5%. The difference in gender-specific reduction in case detection was similar in 5 of 6 WHO regions. There is a clear trend of increasing female percent amongst new cases detected from 2004 onwards; 30.8% of all new cases detected in 2004 were female, rising to 38.9% in 2019.</p>

<p>Conclusions</p>

<p>Sex-disaggregated data reporting at the national and international level needs to remain a priority. Further research is needed to understand why the percentage of new female cases detected amongst all new cases is increasing and the role biological factors play in leprosy transmission.</p>
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