A Clinco-Bacteriological Study of Leprosy in Paediatric Age Group

Abstract

Clinico-bacteriological study was done in 51 leprosy patients below 14 years of age. Majority of the patients were males in the age group of 11 -14 years. Nearly 84% had not received any prior treatment because of lack of awareness and financial constraints. Only 11.76% had a positive contact history. Skin lesions were present in all cases and 84.3% had lesions mainly on the exposed areas of the body and their number was found to increase significantly with advancing age (p < 0.005). These lesions were hypo-pigmented patches in 88% cases. 88% of cases had hypo-anesthesia and nerve thickening was observed in 24% cases. The most common type of skin lesion was borderline tuberculoid (BT) in 53% cases. Positivity of the skin smears increased significantly as the number of the skin lesions per patient increased (p < 0.001). Multibacillary cases were seen in 15.6% of cases and found only in the age group of 10 -14 years of age. No statistically significant association between BCG vaccination and prevention of leprosy was seen.