title: Studies on rapid assessment methods in leprosy.
abstract: A study was undertaken in Pudukottai district, Tamilnadu, India to test rapid assessment methods: viz (i) sample surveys with lower coverages for clinical examination in estimating the disease problem in the community, (ii) utility of registered case prevalence for estimating the actual prevalence in a given area, (iii) leprosy in school-going children and its utility in estimating leprosy prevalence in the community, and (iv) information on disability and smear positivity in estimating leprosy prevalence; and develop correction factors for estimating leprosy situation. A sample of 23 clusters from 582 clusters of contiguous villages and hamlets was further divided into two random sub-samples for two surveys with differing coverages. One team covered nine clusters comprising 34 villages with a population of 17,562 and examined 15,596 with a population of 26,927 and examined 16,622 (62%) persons for leprosy. The results showed that: (i) leprosy sample surveys with lowered coverages would tend to miss valuable information, in terms of quality and quantity; (ii) from 'known case' registers, to estimate the true burden of leprosy disease and to monitor its trend over time is inadequate; (iii) school surveys are of limited value for estimating the disease burden in the community or to monitor its trend over time; (iv) the number of smear-positive cases is to small to serve as an indicator for the total case load in the community; and (v) the prevalence of active disease and that of grade 2 disability in the community are poorly correlated. Reliable methods other than those used here need to be developed for evaluation and monitoring of the disease burden particularly in the post-MDT era.
authors.affiliation: CJIL Field Unit (ICMR), Avadi, Chennai.
authors.forename: M D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Gupte
authors.forename: R S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Vallishayee
authors.forename: T H
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Ahmed
authors.forename: J S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Prince
authors.forename: R L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: De Britto
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Rathinaraj
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Elango
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Balasubramanyam
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Nagaraju
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Arockiasamy
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007918:Leprosy / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011159:Population Surveillance; D015995:Prevalence; D012424:Rural Population; D017678:Sex Distribution