Concepts behind the development of multiple drug therapy regimens in leprosy

Abstract

The WHO chemotherapy regimen for multibacillary leprosy selected on grounds of cost, effectiveness (including the prevention of the emergence of rifampicin resistance), acceptability, supervisability and low toxicity, is amply fulfilling its hopes for controlling drug resistance where it is conscientiously and efficiently being applied. The recent THELEP work suggests that the regimen may well be found to be as fully effective in controlling persistence as any other so far investigated, and that it is not a second-best.