title: Treatment of leprosy/Hansen's disease in the early 21st century.
abstract: Leprosy, or Hansen's disease (HD), is caused by Mycobacterium leprae, a slowly dividing mycobacterium that has evolved to be an intracellular parasite, causing skin lesions and nerve damage. Less than 5% of people exposed to M. leprae develop clinical disease. Host cell-mediated resistance determines whether an individual will develop paucibacillary or multibacillary disease. Hansen's disease is a worldwide disease with about 150 new cases reported annually in the United States. Effective anti-mycobacterial treatments are available, and many patients experience severe reversal and erythema nodosum leprosum reactions that also require treatment. Leprosy has been the target of a World Health Organization multiple drug therapy campaign to eliminate it as a national public health problem in member countries, but endemic regions persist. In the United States, the National Hansen's Disease Program has primary responsibility for medical care, research, and information.
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, College of Medicine, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL 60612-7300, USA. drsophie@sbcglobal.net
authors.forename: Sophie M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Worobec
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D007917:Leprostatic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D007918:Leprosy / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000453:epidemiology
chemical_list: D007917:Leprostatic Agents