Bacilloscopic and morphologic indexes in leprosy after twelve doses of multidrug therapy (WHO/MDT)

• Autor(a) principal: Lastória, Joel Carlos
• Data de Publicação: 2006
• Outros Autores: Putinatti, Maria Stella Mello Ayres, Diório, Suzana Madeira, Trino, Lazara Moreira, Padovan, Carlos Roberto
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Hansenologia Internationalis (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://periodicos.saude.sp.gov.br/hansenologia/article/view/35211
• topic: hanseníase; tratamento; índice morfológico; leprosy; treatment; morphologic index

Leprosy is a chronic infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae, highly prevalent in Brazil. The recommended treatment for the multibacillary forms is the 12 months of the multidrugtherapy, afterwards patients are discharged without any need of bacteriological evaluation. The authors evaluated 73 multibacillary leprosy patients and evaluated the  orphologic index before and after treatment. All borderline forms were negative and 20.54% of the bacilloscopic indexes were positive in the lepromatous form. These patients continued to receive the medication up to 24 months, and still 6.97% were positive. The authors suggest that the bacilloscopic and morphologic indexes should be done at the end of the treatment and in the positive morphologic index cases. Such patients should continue receiving the medication for 24 months, avoiding thus possible relapses and transmission. The same is recommended for immunosupressed patients.