Clinico-epidemiological study of leprosy from a North Indian tertiary care hospital

Abstract

Background: Leprosy was eliminated as a public health problem in India in 2005. Yet, more than 60% of all new cases of leprosy are reported from India. Methods: A retrospective analysis of the records of patients attending the leprosy clinic of the Dermatology Out Patient Department was done for a period of one year from May 2017 to April 2018. The data was analysed for clinical and epidemiological characteristics of the patients. Results: A total of 225 patients visited the leprosy clinic during the study period. Almost half of all patients (47.1%) were aged between 21-40 years. Among the patients were 32 children (14.2%) below 16 years. There were 60 patients (26.6%) suffering from paucibacillary disease and 158 patients (70.2%) had multibacillary disease. Seven patients (3.2%) presented with other forms of leprosy like historic leprosy and pure neuritic leprosy. Borderline lepromatous leprosy was found to be the commonest subtype seen in 86 patients (38.2%). There were 152 males (67.6%) and 73 females (32.4%). The male female ratio was 2.08:1. A total of 118 patients (52.4%) were from rural background and 107 (47.6%) hailed from urban areas. Multibacillary disease was seen in 83.6% of the total females compared to 63.8% of males. Conclusions: Leprosy may be down but is not yet out. The high proportion of children diagnosed with leprosy is a warning regarding the active transmission of the disease in the community. Continued efforts are required to prevent the disease from making a resurgence.