A study on trends and patterns of leprosy in Guyana during a ten year period, 2007-2016

Leprosy is a chronic infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae, an acid-fast, rod-shaped bacillus. This study reports the trends of leprosy in Guyana during the year 2007-2016. This is a retrospective study conducted by analyzing records of all cases registered with Guyana Hansen's Disease Control Programme (GHDCP) during the ten year period. A total of 265 patients data were analyzed in this study. Mean age ± standard deviation (SD) of leprosy patients was 34.5 ± 17 (95% CI 32.5-36.6). There was a noticeable overall increase in the number of leprosy cases throughout the years 2007 to 2016. The trend of PB cases on the other hand, revealed noticeable increase from 9.9% in 2007 to 12.7% in 2016 similarly percentage of multibacillary (MB) cases also showed an increase from 9.4% in 2007 to 14.1% in 2016 (p=0.61). Significantly more cases were recorded for MB (71.9%; 95% CI 66.1-77.2) (p < 0.001) than Paucibacillary (PB) (26.6%; 95% CI 21.4-32.3) (p < 0.001). Within MB, significantly more cases were with LL (28.5%; 95% CI 23.1- 34.3) followed by BL (13.9%; 95% CI 9.9-18.6) (p < 0.001). However, the highest proportion of childhood leprosy and a considerable number of new cases could witness the active transmission of the disease and the existence of new infections within the country. This study therefore provides an insight into the trends of leprosy in Guyana and the result should be considered important to create awareness and reinforcement of policies towards leprosy care.