Epidemiological characterization of leprosy patients presenting to a tertiary care hospital from Uttar Pradesh

Abstract

Background: Leprosy is a disease of public health importance and social stigma to the patients, which may result in debilitating deformities and complications. The diagnosis and microbiological characterization of leprosy is important to initiate appropriate antileprotic treatment. This study was planned to observe epidemiological and microbiological characteristics of the leprosy patients presenting to a tertiary care hospital.

Methods: The clinical and epidemiological data from the patients was collected based on history and examination findings. The slit skin smears were collected from the patients suspected of leprosy. The slit skin smears were subjected to microscopy after performing acid fast staining to observe acid fast bacilli and calculate bacteriological index and morphological index. The data generated in this study was subjected to statistical analysis by using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) software version 27.0.

Result: Out of all slit skin smears collected from 210 patients suspected of leprosy, 78 (37.14%) found positive for the presence of acid-fast bacilli. There was predominance of leprosy cases among males as compared to females. The majority of the leprosy cases were between 21-40 years of age. The majority of the patients were having a bacteriological index of <4.

Conclusion: Leprosy is still prevalent in India in spite of ongoing National Leprosy Eradication Program. The community evidently indicate the grave nature of the problem of untreated and undetected leprosy cases leading to active transmission of the disease.