Changes of Bacteriological Index from Slit Skin smears of Newly Multibacillary Leprosy Patients after One and Two years Treatment with Multidrug Therapy

Abstract

Authors conducted retrospectively descriptive study on changes of bacteriological index (B.I.) formslit - skin smears (SSS) of 100 newly multibacillary leprosy cases who were classified as 12 BT, 12 BB,37 BL and 38 LL and were treated with 1 and 2 years of multidrug therapy (MDT) from 2007 - 2011.Patients were divided into two groups each group consisted of 50 patients whose B.I. were below and above4.0. Initial B.I. prior to MDT of 100 studied cases were ranged form 0.25 - 5.25 (= 2.47), and Decline of B.I after treatment with MDT for 1 and 2 years were 25.00 and 44.53 percent respectively. Among those 50 MB cases whose initial B.I. were 4.0 and above, decline of B.I after 1 and 2 years treatment with MDT were 19.05 and 37.14 percent respectively while such decline of 30.25 and 48.76 percent of B.I. were found among other groups of 50 newly MB cases whose initial B.I. were below 4.0 Similarly, authors have analyzed such decline of B.I. among BT, BB, BL and LL cases after 1 and 2 years treatment with MDT. Related discussions were made such as to reduce duration of MDT among BT cases from 2 to 1 year together with increasing duration of follow-up of those released from treatment (RFT) cases form 5 years to 12 years in order to be able to more effective detection and treatment of more relapsed cases as essential intervention to prevent new transmission from relapsed cases after successful elimination of leprosy.