Leprosy
mailing list – July 17th, 2005
Ccn: all.
Ref.: are 12 months
of MDT MB enough for BL and LL patients?
From: G Warren, Sydney,
Australia.
Dear Salvatore,
I agree with Dr Ogbeiwi’s e-mail (LML
– July 5th, 2005); the present figures for
leprosy give a totally false impression. Everywhere I go I get
told: - Oh but I thought leprosy was eliminated!
Supporters of The Leprosy Mission are horrified when I say WHO
statistics do not mean what they did 20 years ago. I must confess I
tell them that it appears that there are more leprosy affected persons
in the world today but, now it is really only the
number of patients on treatment that are quoted, and I must be
honest that most MB cases will not completely cure themselves
with the twelve months treatment now so often given on WHO
recommendations and not continued even in the most florid LL
patients who to my mind need several years at least.
I have already seen too many relapses after recommended MDT per
WHO (that was 24 months too- not just 12 months) I hate to think of
the rush of relapses that will turn up in 10-20 years time! Who
is going to know how to care for them!
I often quote that in the nineties the number of new cases diagnosed increased
each year!
Thanks for being our
spokesman.
Grace Warren
