TY - JOUR KW - Bhutan KW - Child KW - Female KW - Humans KW - leprosy KW - Male KW - Prevalence KW - Program evaluation AU - Jakeman P AU - Jakeman N R AU - Singay J AB -

An evaluation programme was undertaken 11 years after the introduction of multidrug therapy (MDT) into Bhutan, by examining the case notes of 3239 leprosy patients who had been under treatment at any time during the period. The registered prevalence was found to have fallen markedly, as expected, and this had been accompanied by a clear fall in the case detection rate as well. The lepromatous rate among new patients rose considerably, giving epidemiological hope that the disease may be coming under control. However, no concomitant fall in the proportion of child cases was seen. The disability rate at detection rose slightly, although numbers were small. New cases were increasingly likely to have more highly positive skin smears, and to be self-reported. Programme planners should give thought to the implications of these findings.

BT - Leprosy review C1 - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7731344?dopt=Abstract CN - Infolep Library - available DA - 1995 Mar DO - 10.5935/0305-7518.19950010 IS - 1 J2 - Lepr Rev LA - eng N2 -

An evaluation programme was undertaken 11 years after the introduction of multidrug therapy (MDT) into Bhutan, by examining the case notes of 3239 leprosy patients who had been under treatment at any time during the period. The registered prevalence was found to have fallen markedly, as expected, and this had been accompanied by a clear fall in the case detection rate as well. The lepromatous rate among new patients rose considerably, giving epidemiological hope that the disease may be coming under control. However, no concomitant fall in the proportion of child cases was seen. The disability rate at detection rose slightly, although numbers were small. New cases were increasingly likely to have more highly positive skin smears, and to be self-reported. Programme planners should give thought to the implications of these findings.

PY - 1995 SP - 69 EP - 75 T2 - Leprosy review TI - Trends in leprosy in the Kingdom of Bhutan, 1982-1992. UR - http://leprev.ilsl.br/pdfs/1995/v66n1/pdf/v66n1a10.pdf VL - 66 SN - 0305-7518 ER -