ABSTRACT
There are at the present time at least two and a half million patients of leprosy in India, who constitute about one-third of the world’s leprosy population. Leprosy is prevalent in virtually every state of India, ranging from a mere 1,522 cases in Haryana, to an estimated 272,000 cases in the state of Bihar, while Orissa and Tamil Nadu have the highest prevalence rate in the country.1 In the early 1980s, with the commencement of the National Leprosy Eradication Programme (NLEP), districts with a prevalence rate of five or more patients per thousand of the population were identified as hyperendemic, and phased introduction of the Multi Drug therapy (MDT) began. Treatment time is substantially reduced with MDT to between six to twenty-four months for most cases, which represents a significant improvement on the earlier dependence on sulfone monotherapy, which entailed continuous drug intake over several years.
