title: Prevention and early detection of leprosy in children.
abstract: India with its 4 million cases of leprosy, accounts for one-third of the world's population of leprosy patients. One-fourth of them are below 15 years of age. We report a 5-year follow-up study of healthy children who were close contacts of leprosy patients, in order to: 1. detect subclinical infection and observe the development of overt disease by using the Fluorescent Leprosy Antibody Absorption Technique (FLA-ABS) and the lepromin test which assess the humoral and cell-mediated immunity (CMI), respectively; 2. evaluate the efficacy of dapsone as a chemoprophylactic agent in the 'at risk' contacts. Four-hundred-and-fifty-five healthy contacts were studied. Majority of the contacts of multibacillary patients (303) were FLA-ABS positive (75 percent) and lepromin negative (55 percent) showing that although most of them had been infected, the lepromin status was negative (P < 0.01). On the other hand, the majority of the contacts of paucibacillary patients (152) were lepromin positive (57 percent) (P < 0.05). Furthermore, only 61 percent of contacts of paucibacillary patients were FLA-ABS positive as compared to 75 percent of contacts of multibacillary patients demonstrating that the former had been exposed to a lesser quantum of infection (P < 0.05). On the basis of results of FLA-ABS and lepromin tests, these 455 contacts were classified into four groups, viz. Group I comprising children who were FLA-ABS positive and lepromin positive; Group II, who were FLA-ABS positive and lepromin negative; Group III, who were FLA-ABS negative and lepromin positive; and Group IV who were FLA-ABS negative and lepromin negative.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
authors.affiliation: Department of Paediatrics, S.N. Medical College, Agra, India.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Dayal
authors.forename: V P
authors.initials: VP
authors.lastname: Bharadwaj
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D017677:Age Distribution; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003622:Dapsone / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D005260:Female; D005455:Fluorescent Antibody Technique; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D007223:Infant; D007916:Lepromin; D007918:Leprosy / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000635:transmission; D008297:Male; D012307:Risk Factors
chemical_list: D007916:Lepromin; D003622:Dapsone