Weekly self medication of leprosy patients monitored by DDS/creatinine ratios in urines

Abstract

The self administration of once weekly doses of 300 mg Dapsone (DDS) by leprosy patients in the Mwanza region of Tanzania was monitored using the urine test method described by Ellard et al. DDS/creatinine ratios were determined on urine samples voided by 65 supervised leprosy patients on each of 7 successive days following the ingestion of 300 mg DDS. The method was then applied to urine samples collected by means of surprise visits to the homes of 158 out patients 2 days after the day on which a 300 mg dose of DDS should have been taken. The extent of DDS self administration by the out patients was estimated by comparing the results with those obtained from controls given supervised DDS doses and from subjects not taking DDS. Significant amounts of DDS were not detected in the urine samples collected from 30% of the out patients. Furthermore the average DDS/creatinine ratios of the urine samples of the other out patients were significantly lower than those from the supervised controls. The implications of these findings to the treatment of leprosy in the Mwanza region and their relevance to other leprosy control schemes is discussed.