TY - JOUR KW - Developing countries KW - Drug Resistance, Microbial KW - Drug Therapy, Combination KW - Forecasting KW - Health Services Accessibility KW - Humans KW - Leprostatic Agents KW - leprosy KW - Prevalence KW - Registries KW - World Health Organization AU - Noordeen S K AB -

Leprosy continues to be a major problem in the developing world with over 3.9 million cases registered in 1989. The control of leprosy had been considerably handicapped by the widespread occurrence of resistance of M. leprae to dapsone the most commonly used anti-leprosy drug. Together with problems of treatment compliance and social stigma this lead to leprosy control losing considerable ground. In response to the situation and taking advantage of the availability of more potent drugs, in 1981, WHO recommended standard multidrug therapy (MDT) regimens for treatment of leprosy in control programmes. The experience of implementating MDT all over the world over the last eight years has shown the regimens to be highly effective and acceptable. By 1990, nearly 50% of all the registered leprosy cases in the world were benefitting from MDT. The future prospects for leprosy control appear bright with major reductions in prevalence foreseen in the coming years.

BT - Tropical and geographical medicine C1 - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1687771?dopt=Abstract DA - 1991 Jul IS - 3 J2 - Trop Geogr Med LA - eng N2 -

Leprosy continues to be a major problem in the developing world with over 3.9 million cases registered in 1989. The control of leprosy had been considerably handicapped by the widespread occurrence of resistance of M. leprae to dapsone the most commonly used anti-leprosy drug. Together with problems of treatment compliance and social stigma this lead to leprosy control losing considerable ground. In response to the situation and taking advantage of the availability of more potent drugs, in 1981, WHO recommended standard multidrug therapy (MDT) regimens for treatment of leprosy in control programmes. The experience of implementating MDT all over the world over the last eight years has shown the regimens to be highly effective and acceptable. By 1990, nearly 50% of all the registered leprosy cases in the world were benefitting from MDT. The future prospects for leprosy control appear bright with major reductions in prevalence foreseen in the coming years.

PY - 1991 SP - S5 EP - 12 T2 - Tropical and geographical medicine TI - Recent developments in leprosy control. VL - 43 SN - 0041-3232 ER -