Results of eight years follow up among multibacillary patients treated with Uniform Multidrug Therapy in China

Objective: To analyse the results of treatment among multibacillary (MB) patients 8 years after treatment with 6 months’ multidrug therapy (MDT). Methods: Newly detected and relapsed MB leprosy patients were treated with 6 months WHO-MDT. The patients were followed up for 8 years. The effectiveness of treatment was assessed by clinical status and bacteriological changes. Results: A total of 114 patients were recruited. Forty two patients dropped out from the study for various reasons. Only 72 patients remained for the final analysis. The mean Bacteriological Index (BI) of all patients decreased from 2·93 ^ 1·39 before treatment, to 0 at the end of the eight year follow up period, with an average annual BI decrease of 0·42. The rate of smear negativity of all patients was 100% at the end of follow up. 38 (53%) patients experienced leprosy reactions during the study and one patient relapsed, giving a cumulative relapse rate of 1·3% or 0·035 per 100 patient-years. Conclusion: The finding that all MB cases with initially positive skin smears, who were treated with only 6 months of MB-MDT, became negative within 8 years showed that the response to this regimen is good in a majority of MB cases.