Leprosy Scenario – A 10 Year Retrospective Study of Clinical, Epidemiological and Demographic Data of Hansen's Disease Patients in Dakshina Kannada District, Karnataka, India

Due to significant disability, social implication, stigma associated with the disease, it is essential to identify the factors which contribute to prevalence of this disease. This study is aimed to analyze the clinical, epidemiologic and demographic data of leprosy cases collected from District Leprosy Office in Mangalore, Dakshina Kannada district over a decade. This is a retrospective study of 847 confirmed leprosy cases treated over a period of 10 years from 2003 to 2013, whose data is available at District Leprosy Office, Mangalore, Dakshina Kannada district,Karnataka in which the records of leprosy patients were analysed. Results: Of these 847 confirmed cases of leprosy majority of paucibacillary cases (70.3%, n=147) were seen in patients less than 20 year age group compared to multibacillary leprosy (79.6%, n=43) which was more among patients aged 60 and above. Majority (66.1%, n=379) of the MB cases were reported among males, whereas among females the distribution of leprosy cases was almost similar (PB vs MB that is 49.6% vs 50.4%). Grade 1 disability was seen in 57% of the cases and grade 2 disability was seen in 28%. About 15.3% of the cases were children (130 cases). In our study, year wise distribution of recorded number of cases presented a significant drop from year 2003 to 2006. However, the drop from 2007 to 2013 is marginal. The number of child cases and disability rates were higher, suggesting active transmission of the disease in the community. Programmes aimed at early diagnosis, enhancing supervision, promoting health education, and monitoring treatment is the need of the hour specially to reduce the disabilities as fast as possible.