The study of disability status of live leprosy patients in Kurdistan province of Iran

Objective: Leprosy is an infectious disease which may lead to disability before, during or after treatment. There have been different reports about the prevalence of disabilities in leprosy patients. This study is about the status of disabilities in live leprosy patients in Kurdistan province. Methodology: This was a descriptive-analytic study. The live patients who were accessible and had been registered in the health care department of Kurdistan University were imcluded. The patients whose files were incomplete, were examined and their disabilities were assessed on the basis of the WHO protocol about grading of disabilities in leprosy. Results: One hundred eighty patients were included in this study­ 116 (64.4%) were male and 64 (35.6%) were female. One hundred twenty six (70%) patients had multibacillary and 54 (30%) of them had paucibacillary leprosy. In our study 152 (84.4%) patients had developed disabilities of variable degrees. There was a significant relation between disabilities and type of leprosy (p<0.05), but no relation was observed between disabilities and sex or residential areas. Discussion: Today, the main objective of therapeutic plans for leprosy is prevention of disabilities in the patients. Prevalence rate of disabilities in the leprosy patients of Kurdistan province, was higher than those of other parts of the world which might have been due to delay in referring to healthcare centers, incomplete treatment course and having no access to medical centers in the past.