Familial clustering of leprosy patients in an Israeli village

Abstract

In an Israeli community of immigrants from Kurdistan, with a leprosy prevalence of 3.2 per 100, the leprosy patients were found to be clustered in a very few sibships. It appears justified to restrict case-finding activities to the members of affected families. In addition, it appears possible to consider a programme of targeted chemoprophylaxis. Programmes of chemoprophylaxis employing dapsone or acedapsone may be too expensive to be considered in developing countries in which leprosy is endemic. The cost of such programmes in a developed country is not great, especially if the chemoprophylaxis can be limited to those most at risk of developing the disease.