Page 141 - LECTURE NOTES

- Items which can not be washed such as mattresses, thick rugs pillows should be

given an outdoor airing in bright sunlight when possible
- Air your living accommodation for several hours on a dry sunny day.

6.3.3. Leprosy

Leprosy is caused by mycobacterium leprae. Mycobacterium leprae is not probably
as communicable as M. tuberculosis. However, the portal of entry is believed to be

through the nasal route, skin to skin contact and, only those untreated patients with

multibacillary leprosy are infectious discharging the bacilli through nasal and
untreated nodules. Mycobacterium leprae has a very long multiplication time and the

majority of the population has strong immunity, therefore it requires a prolonged

exposure to acquire the disease. Persons living close to mycobacterium case needs
to be examined for leprosy. Because leprosy has long incubation period, most

patients are asymptomatic at early stage of the disease. Thus it is important to
create awareness at leprosy through health education for early diagnosis and

treatment.

6.3.3.1 Epidemiology

The disease usually occurs in persons who live in endemic areas, including Africa,
Asia, and the Pacific Islands. Also at risk are those people with a long term exposure
and frequent close contact with leprosy patients.

Today, a great majority of the global leprosy burden is concentrated in certain limited

geographical areas, with the top 11 endemic countries representing 90% of the
prevalence and detection worldwide. In Ethiopia, the prevalence of leprosy is 0.8 per

10,000 populations.

6.3.3.2 Prevention and control measures Case detection and treatment

Multidrug therapy (MDT) rapidly reduces the infectivity of known patients, but it has

not yet demonstrated that it is able to prevent new cases from occurring in the
community, perhaps because of previous exposure except that BCG vaccination

helps in preventing tubrculoid form of leprosy.

135