[About a note published in 1926 on a BCG vaccine trial in leprosy treatment]. / À propos d'une note de 1926 sur un essai du BCG dans le traitement de la lèpre.

By 1926, two French physicians working in Indochina, R. Pons and L. Chastel, have suggested to treat leprosy by subcutaneous injections of bacillus Calmette-Guerin. This treatment appeared efficient since the lepromatous lesions quickly regressed and the Hansen bacillus disappeared from the nasal mucus. These results were quickly confirmed by other authors. They were all more appreciated than, at this time, the Chaulmoogra oil and its products, the only available drugs, were poorly efficient against the disease. Nevertheless, although not a panacea, the BCG therapy allowed to relieve these unfortunate patients until the beginning of the 1950's when an effective treatment by sulfones was at length available.

Leprosy vaccines.

Leprosy is the clinical manifestation of chronic infection with Mycobacterium leprae, an intracellular parasite with a predilection for skin and nerves. Disabilities and mutilations associated with this disease, which are attributable primarily to nerve involvement, have made leprosy among the most feared and stigmatizing of all diseases. It is still widespread in the warmer regions of the globe, including southern Europe, southern USA and most of the developing countries. Though widespread, the distribution of the disease in endemic regions is sparse (a prevalence rate of 1 per 1000 is high) and predominantly rural, for reasons which are not understood, but which add to the difficulty of providing effective disease control.

Hypothesis of leprosy, tuberculosis and urbanization in Africa.

Leprosy today is a problem of global magnitude affecting possibly up to 15 million people. Its rise and fall in medieval Europe is an historically fascinating enigma. Partial cross-immunization by epidemic tuberculosis, reinforced by the growth of cities, has been proposed as a mechanism in leprosy's European disappearance, but evidence is lacking. In the case of Africa in recent decades, analysis of leprosy and tuberculosis rates, and of levels of urbanization, albeit with imperfect data, suggests a possible environmental health for leprosy, the existence of some cross-interference between tuberculosis and the milder, paucibacillary form of leprosy, and a negative correlation between leprosy and urbanization. It is argued that the rise of the city in Africa, acting through a combination of influences, including tuberculosis, is leading to a decline of leprosy.

Influencia del B.C.G. sobre a posibilidad de la leprominorreaccion

El trabajo esta dividido en dos parte. En el primera se tratam em forma somera los puntos más importantes sobre la leprominorreacción, la classificación de la lepra y las relaciones entre esta enfermedad y la tuberculosis. Posteriormente se hace una breve síntesis de la historia del B.C.G. en el mundo y en particular en nuestro país, para terminar con una revisión de los trabajos más importantes en se ha empleado la vacuna B.C.G. en relación con la lepra. En la segunda parte se expone nuestra experiencia: a 107 contactos de enfermos de lepra se les practicó intradermorreacciones de Mantoux y Mitsuda. A los que dieron negativa esta ultima se lesvacunó con B.C.G. por vía intradérmica y se le repitió la leprominorreacción un año después de afectuada la vacunación. Un 71 por cento de los vacunados viraron su Mitsuda a la positividade