New cases of leprosy are falling

BMJ 1995;310:596 (4 March)

Letters

New cases of leprosy are falling

EDITOR,--Fiona Godlee accepts the statement from the InternationalFederation of Leprosy Associations that, "despite multidrugtreatment, there has been no sign of a decline in the numberof new cases."¹ In 1993, 590933 new cases were detected.² Thiswas a fall of some 60000 from the previous year,³ even if someof this decline may have been due to the elimination of misdiagnosedcases.

When considering whether leprosy can be eradicated by multidrugtreatment it would be more helpful if the decline in the numberof new cases was used as the criterion rather than the fallin the prevalence of treated patients. New rates of lepromatousleprosy and leprosy in children should also be recorded.⁴

There is, of course, evidence of a decline in leprosy as a resultof monotreatment with dapsone.⁵

Lecturer Department of Anatomy, Charing Cross and WestminsterMedical School, London W6 8RF

C L Crawford