Leprosy (Hansen's Disease)

A chronic granulomatous infection caused by MYCOBACTERIUM LEPRAE. The granulomatous lesions are manifested in the skin, the mucous membranes, and the peripheral nerves. Two polar or principal types are lepromatous and tuberculoid.

Also Known As:

Networked: 4630 relevant articles (179 outcomes, 580 trials/studies)

Relationship Network

Disease Context: Research Results

Related Diseases

1.	Tuberculosis (Tuberculoses)
2.	Infection
3.	Erythema Nodosum
4.	Multibacillary Leprosy
5.	Ulcer

Experts

1.	Brennan, Patrick J: 33 articles (12/2014 - 05/2002)
2.	Sarno, Euzenir N: 32 articles (12/2015 - 11/2002)
3.	Duthie, Malcolm S: 24 articles (11/2015 - 11/2007)
4.	Geluk, Annemieke: 23 articles (03/2015 - 09/2005)
5.	Spencer, John S: 22 articles (01/2015 - 06/2004)
6.	Lockwood, Diana N J: 20 articles (01/2013 - 04/2002)
7.	Oskam, Linda: 19 articles (01/2015 - 09/2002)
8.	Modlin, Robert L: 17 articles (10/2015 - 03/2003)
9.	Reed, Steven G: 17 articles (10/2015 - 03/2006)
10.	Sarno, E N: 17 articles (08/2011 - 04/2000)

Drugs and Biologics

Drugs and Important Biological Agents (IBA) related to Leprosy:

1.	Thalidomide (Thalomid)FDA Link 02/01/2007 - "As expected, overall, thalidomide proved to be more effective in the treatment of type II leprosy reaction. " 10/01/2009 - "In this study, comparisons were made regarding the plasma concentrations of thalidomide in patients with ENL on the course or after leprosy therapy in a prospective clinical trial. " 10/01/1986 - "Thalidomide in leprosy--study of 94 cases." 10/01/1969 - "Motor conduction velocity studies in patients with leprosy reaction treated with thalidomide and other drugs." 10/01/1968 - "Trials with thalidomide derivatives in leprosy reactions."
2.	Rifampin (Rifampicin)FDA LinkGeneric 04/05/2008 - "Effectiveness of single dose rifampicin in preventing leprosy in close contacts of patients with newly diagnosed leprosy: cluster randomised controlled trial." 06/01/1990 - "Because both PEFLO and OFLO displayed rapid bactericidal activities in human leprosy and were well tolerated by the patients, further clinical trials and field trials in evaluating the therapeutic effects of combined regimens containing both rifampin and PEFLO or OFLO are being organized. " 07/01/1985 - "Chemotherapeutic trials with different regimens containing rifampicin in paucibacillary type of leprosy cases--a preliminary report." 12/01/1981 - "This trial revealed the satisfactory efficacy, good tolerability, and practicability of a supervised once-monthly 1200 mg single oral dose rifampin schedule as a component of combination regimes for the initial treatment of patients with lepromatous (LLs and LLp) leprosy." 01/10/1970 - "Experimental and clinical studies on rifampicin in treatment of leprosy."
3.	DapsoneFDA Link 09/01/1999 - "6) In cases cured with dapsone therapy, there was an increase or a persistence of high OD values in ND-ELISA prior to the onset of a leprosy relapse. " 06/01/2009 - "The study aimed to analyse the effect on the relapse rate of dapsone-cured multibacillary (MB) leprosy patients, of re-treatment, using a multidrug therapy (MDT) regimen which differed from the WHO recommended regimen. " 06/01/2009 - "leprae threatened leprosy control programmes, and increased the relapse rate of patients cured with dapsone monotherapy. " 03/01/2002 - "Serial antibody levels were measured in 666 leprosy patients after being cured with dapsone monotherapy. " 12/01/1999 - "Based upon the data from the Chinese National System for Leprosy Surveillance, this paper reports on the relapses in 297,343 leprosy patients [multibacillary (MB) 106,518, paucibacillary (PB) 190,825] cured by dapsone monotherapy. "
4.	AntigensIBA 01/01/1999 - "leprae antigens recognized by T-cell is important for specific diagnosis, vaccine development and understanding the basic mechanisms involved in protection against and pathogenesis of leprosy. " 03/01/1984 - "These results suggest that this technique, with an improved antigen, may be useful in leprosy control programs, both for detecting candidates for preventive treatment and for following responses to therapy." 12/01/2012 - "New Mycobacterium leprae protein antigens can contribute to improved serologic tests for leprosy diagnosis/classification and multidrug therapy (MDT) monitoring. " 01/01/2010 - "Study of cytokine response against panel of purified Mycobacterium leprae antigens by using whole blood assay in subjects residing in a resettlement village of cured leprosy patients." 07/01/1995 - "Indirect ELISA was carried out on sera from 20 leprosy patients and five normal controls using antigen prepared from peripheral nerves of a cured bacteriologically negative leprosy patient. "
5.	BCG VaccineFDA Link 02/22/1992 - "In an attempt to find a vaccine that gives greater and more consistent protection against leprosy than BCG vaccine, we compared BCG with and without killed Mycobacterium leprae in Venezuela. " 08/01/1993 - "Protective efficacy of BCG vaccine against leprosy in southern Malaŵi." 02/01/2010 - "The bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine, initially developed to provide protection against TB, also protects against leprosy; and the magnitude of this effect varies. " 02/01/2009 - "Neither one nor two doses of the bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine provides protection against adult pulmonary TB, despite protecting against leprosy. " 08/01/1993 - "This paper describes a matched case-control study to determine the efficacy of BCG vaccine in preventing the occurrence of leprosy in southern Malaŵi, a previously unstudied area. "
6.	Clofazimine (Lamprene)FDA Link 05/01/1991 - "Clinical studies support the efficacy of clofazimine as a part of multidrug therapy in treating leprosy. " 08/01/2012 - "Clofazimine, a fat-soluble dye with experimental activity against TB, but used only for leprosy in the last 50 years, requires further study because it has been included in a successful short 9-month combined drug regimen for the treatment of multidrug-resistant TB. " 03/01/1994 - "Our study, therefore, was designed to assess the changes that might be seen in the lymphatic system of patients treated with clofazimine for the management of leprosy. " 07/01/1976 - "Long-term clinical toxicity studies with clofazimine (B663) in leprosy." 01/01/1966 - "Further studies on B.663 in murine leprosy. "
7.	VaccinesIBA 01/01/2015 - "Vaccine trials have been conducted with BCG, often in combination with Mycobacterium leprae or related Mycobacterium vaccines as immunoprophylaxis for contacts of leprosy patients, with BCG giving the best results. " 10/01/1998 - "Observed incidence rates were not sufficiently high to ascertain the protective efficacy of the candidate vaccines against progressive and serious forms of leprosy. " 06/01/1991 - "Namely, trials should be designed to measure the protective efficacy of vaccines against the more serious forms of leprosy, which have the greatest public health significance." 11/01/2011 - "Because BCG provides incomplete protection against both TB and leprosy, newer more effective TB vaccines are being developed. " 10/01/1998 - "It was possible to assess the overall protective efficacy of the candidate vaccines against leprosy as such. "
8.	Ofloxacin (Levofloxacin)FDA LinkGeneric 09/01/1996 - "Because the monotherapy using ofloxacin has been reported to be effective in all 5 previously reported cases of BL type leprosy, it may be recommended for a larger number of leprosy cases." 09/01/2012 - "As multicentre trial participants, we evaluated the therapeutic efficacy, in terms of rate of relapse, of two new multidrug regimens containing ofloxacin, comparing them to 1 year and 2 years of standard WHO-MDT regimen in multibacillary (MB) leprosy patients. " 03/01/2010 - "The efficacy of a four-week, ofloxacin-containing regimen compared with standard WHO-MDT in PB leprosy." 04/01/1995 - "The results of this study suggest that these compounds, in combination with ofloxacin as part of multidrug regimens, warrant further evaluation as treatment for patients with leprosy." 09/01/2012 - "OFLOXACIN multicentre trial in MB leprosy FUAM-Manaus and ILSL-Bauru, Brazil."
9.	Prednisolone (Predate)FDA LinkGeneric 01/01/2012 - "Within the 'Treatment of Early Neuropathy in LEProsy' (TENLEP) study two double blind randomized controlled trials (RCT) will be carried out: a trial to establish whether prednisolone treatment of 32 weeks duration is more effective than 20 weeks in restoring nerve function in leprosy patients with clinical NFI (Clinical trial) and a trial to determine whether prednisolone treatment of early sub-clinical NFI can prevent clinical NFI (Subclinical trial). " 12/01/2003 - "No demonstrable additional improvement in nerve function, or in preventing further leprosy reaction events was seen in the prednisolone group. " 01/01/2012 - "The TENLEP study will add to the current understanding of neuropathy due to leprosy and provide insight in the effectiveness of prednisolone on the prevention and recovery of NFI in leprosy patients. " 01/01/2012 - "In the Subclinical trial leprosy patients with subclinical neuropathy, as determined by Nerve Conduction Studies (NCS) and/or Warm Detection Threshold (WDT), and without any clinical signs of NFI are randomly allocated to a placebo group or treatment group receiving 20 weeks prednisolone. " 01/01/2012 - "Two randomized controlled clinical trials to study the effectiveness of prednisolone treatment in preventing and restoring clinical nerve function loss in leprosy: the TENLEP study protocols."
10.	AntibodiesIBA 02/01/1998 - "Among the many reported applications of the detection of antibodies to phenolic glycolipid-I (PGL-I) of Mycobacterium leprae, in particular, the use of seroprevalence as an indicator of the magnitude of the leprosy problem may turn out to be very useful in leprosy control programs. " 03/01/1991 - "Leprosy as cause of false-positive results in serological assays for the detection of antibodies to HIV-1." 05/01/2011 - "The present study was undertaken to identify antibodies to myelin P0 and ceramide in the sera of treated leprosy patients, HIV positive individuals and healthy subjects using enzyme linked immunosorbant assay (ELISA). " 07/01/2010 - "The study indicates that anti-PGL-I antibodies are not useful as immunological markers of household leprosy contacts and no known leprosy contacts in endemic areas." 08/01/2009 - "In the present study, 29 skin samples from patients with tuberculoid (13 biopsies) and lepromatous (16 biopsies) leprosy were analyzed by immunohistochemistry using antibodies to CD1a and FXIIIa. "

Therapies and Procedures

1.	Drug Therapy (Chemotherapy) 01/01/1992 - "Although chemotherapy offers the best current hope for the control of leprosy, effective immunoprophylaxis and improved socioeconomic conditions in endemic areas are thought to be essential in programs for the eradication of leprosy." 01/01/1996 - "Fixed duration multi drug therapy has been found to be very effective in elimination of leprosy from public health point of view. " 03/01/1993 - "Better usage of chemotherapy since 1976 has helped to reduce the transmission of bacilli from person to person, combined with effective health education activities which have dispelled some wrong ideas about leprosy and encouraged patients to seek help early in the course of the disease. " 10/01/1994 - "The current strategy for leprosy control remains the early diagnosis and effective treatment of leprosy patients with multi-drug therapy (MDT), together with the prevention and/or limitation of disabilities. " 03/01/1990 - "Because effective chemotherapy has become available, leprosy can now be cured, and frightening disabilities are therefore preventable."
2.	Chemoprevention 09/01/2000 - "The overall results of the meta-analysis shows that chemoprophylaxis gives around 60% protection against leprosy. " 10/01/2009 - "Chemoprophylaxis is effective in lowering the incidence of leprosy in contacts of patients diagnosed with the disease." 09/01/2000 - "Chemoprophylaxis is effective in the prevention of leprosy in endemic countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis. " 06/01/2011 - "All healthy participants were willing to take chemoprophylaxis if any of their close contacts were diagnosed with leprosy, even after explaining that full protection against leprosy was not guaranteed. " 09/01/2000 - "To quantify the efficacy of chemoprophylaxis against leprosy. "
3.	Immunotherapy 09/01/2002 - "immunotherapy, given 18 months earlier, significantly improved blood flow and temperature sensation, in fully-treated, chronic, leprosy patients. " 12/01/1982 - "These results demonstrate the efficacy of combined immunotherapy in low-resistance forms of leprosy and potential utility in the immunoprophylaxis of the disease." 09/01/2002 - "Immunotherapy with Mycobacterium vaccae and peripheral blood flow in long-treated leprosy patients, a randomised, placebo-controlled trial." 06/01/2015 - "A high index of suspicion is required when leprosy patients who receive BCG immunotherapy develop new lesions that cannot be classified as either reaction or relapse, and diagnosis may be confirmed on histopathology and PCR." 06/01/2015 - "There is a paucity of data on the cutaneous adverse reactions secondary to BCG immunotherapy in leprosy. "
4.	Aftercare (After-Treatment) 08/01/2011 - "Cases (n=53) were patients with relapsed leprosy diagnosed from 2005 to 2007 who were compared with controls (n=106) matching for gender and operational classification who were considered cured after treatment in 2005. " 07/01/2015 - "The objective of this study is to assess the magnitude of disability and associated factors among leprosy patients after treatment in Boru Meda Hospital. " 01/01/2012 - "The present study is to assess the cure; default, relapse and disability in a prospective cohort of PB leprosy during follow-up of >4 years after treatment. " 12/01/2003 - "The objective of this study was to examine the clinical signs, symptoms and course of neuropathies in patients with leprosy who after treatment developed nerve impairment, not explained by relapse or reversal reactions. " 12/01/1999 - "Studies on risk of leprosy relapses in China: relapses after treatment with multidrug therapy."
5.	Combination Drug Therapy (Combination Chemotherapy) 09/01/2013 - "In the light of successive therapeutical difficulties for leprosy control, the application of drug therapy combination over the last decades has brought about an expectation of cure for leprosy patients and also for the elimination of this illness as a Public Health problem. " 01/01/1986 - "[A trial of polychemotherapy of leprosy in the Dakar region. " 04/01/1985 - "[Evaluation 7 to 9 years later of trials of polychemotherapy carried out in Senegal in patients with leprosy]." 09/01/2013 - "The conclusions that have been reached indicate,mainly, that the reality of leprosy control with the use of combination drug therapy, still needs to be handled with care, even more so as this is just a fragment of the set of people once under medical attention, which also correspond to a parcel of the set of people affected by the ailment. " 09/01/2007 - "This is despite the drastic reduction in leprosy prevalence over the last two decades, through the implementation of polychemotherapy and other preventive measures."