Relapse related to drug resistance in leprosy

• Autor(a) principal: Diório, Suzana Madeira
• Data de Publicação: 2009
• Outros Autores: Rosa, Patrícia Sammarco, Belone, Andréa de Faria Fernandes, Sartori, Beatriz Gomes Carreira, Trino, Lazara Moreira, Baptista, Ida Maria Foschiani Dias, Marcos, Elaine Valim Camarinha, Barreto, Jaison Antonio, Ura, Somei
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por; eng
• Título da fonte: Hansenologia Internationalis (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://periodicos.saude.sp.gov.br/hansenologia/article/view/35162
• topic: Mycobacterium leprae; hanseníase; recidiva; resistência a drogas; Mycobacterium leprae; leprosy; relapse; drugs resistance

The multidrugtherapy proposed by the World Health Organization has been effectively implemented in Brazil in 1991. It helped reduce the prevalence and achieve the cure of leprosy. However, its proven efficacy has not prevented the occurrence of relapses in some leprosy patients. Irregular treatment, bacillary persistence or resistance of Mycobacterium leprae to drugs are factors that may be associated with relapse. The objective of this study was assess the occurrence of relapse and associate it with the presence of Mycobacterium leprae resistant strains. In order to do that, 28 individuals who were clinically diagnosed as relapse after treatment with sulphone monotherapy, the National Division of Sanitary Dermatology scheme or multidrugtherapy. Biopsies from lesions of multibacillary patients attended by spontaneous demand were collected to verifyresistance to drugs through the mouse foot pad inoculation technique. Among the samples evaluated 42.8% had bacilli susceptible to dapsone and rifampicin and 10.7% showed resistance to dapsone. No rifampicin resistant bacilli were isolated. The emergence of resistant strains, especially to rifampicin, is a threat to leprosy control programs, therefore, monitoring the spread of these strains is important because resistance pose a serious obstacle to the elimination of disease, particularly in countries where the disease is endemic.