Socio-demographic profile of leprosy patients in two districts of western Uttar Pradesh.

Despite achieving the goal of national elimination of leprosy, it remains a serious public health problem in the high prevalence states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Orissa. A significant percentage of newly detected cases are Multibacillary. It underscores the importance of developing a more effective strategy to combat the disease in high prevalence pockets of the country. A glance into sociodemographic profile of the leprosy patients of one the high prevalence states might help in understanding the current ground situation better. A questionnaire based study was conducted at health care center of two districts of Uttar Pradesh (Rampur and Moradabad). Data on demographic profile of leprosy patients attending these centers were collected. The leprosy patients were more frequently males (63.8%). The duration of time before presentation was significantly longer for semiskilled workers (Kuppuswami Scale classification), p = 0.029. Patients with multibacillary disease were younger (mean age 31.04 yrs) as compared to paucibacillary leprosy (mean age 38.7yrs), p value = 0.041. These observations suggests that a specific population based approach is required to detect new cases early. Certain groups of the population might benefit from active surveillance.

Hydrolytic enzymes in leprosy sera.

Serum samples collected from 45 untreated leprosy patients and 10 healthy subjects were studied for the activities of alkaline phosphatase, N-acetyl beta-glucosaminidase and beta-glucuronidase. A highly significant increase in the specific activity of these enzymes was observed in all types of leprosy patients as compared to controls. Increase in the level of circulatory hydrolytic enzymes could be a tissue damaging factor and may be responsible for many of the lesions seen in leprosy.