Chapters authored
Leprosy: The Ancient and Stubborn Disease
Leprosy can be caused by an infection of Mycobacterium leprae commonly acquired through contact with an infected person. Clinical presentation depends on the patient’s immune status at the time of infection and during the course of disease. Leprosy is associated with disability and marginalization. The Global Leprosy Strategy 2016–2020 released in April 2016 underscored its goal of “accelerating towards a leprosy free-world.” Today’s leprosy differs from the leprosy of the past, but yet there are still many things that are not immediately known, so it is still a broad socioeconomic challenge for scientists to solve. Leprosy has low pathogenicity, only a small proportion of infected people develop signs of the disease. If leprosy is not diagnosed and treated in the early stages, further progress of the disease is determined by the strength of the patient’s immune response. Various clinical signs can be known during the early phase of leprosy, defined as indeterminate phase, so that it is difficult to diagnose the disease. Multidrug therapy (MDT) was recommended as the standard treatment. The morbidity report of leprosy will be important in epidemiology because it is based on real events and not based on estimate.
Part of the book: Current Topics in Tropical Emerging Diseases and Travel Medicine