Perspectives on the impact of stigma in leprosy: strategies to improve access to health care

Pamidipani SS Sundar Rao LEPRA India, Secunderabad, India Abstract: Throughout its history, leprosy has been much feared and misunderstood. Today, we have the best knowledge, expertise, therapies, and surgical and physiotherapeutic skills to virtually cure and eradicate the disease, but the continuing high levels of stigma pose insurmountable obstacles in our efforts to remove the scourges of leprosy. In this review, the medical, social, and political aspects related to the impact of stigma on leprosy are elaborated, and strategies for providing access to equitable and effective care are described. Leprosy is a biosocial disease, and experience has shown that both the medical and social dimensions must be aggressively confronted. Stigma in leprosy is based on religious, sociocultural, psychological, and demographic experience over centuries of human existence. Therefore, any attempt to eradicate or reduce stigma will require strong multifaceted approaches that will permeate psychological, social, and mental layers of the human mind and result in necessary health-seeking behaviors. What then is needed is a social multidrug therapy similar to the medical multidrug therapy, where there would be one arm for curing the medical problems of leprosy, a second arm focusing on empowering the people, especially affected persons, through appropriate education, awareness, especially for early detection and treatment, encouraging positive attitudes and perceptions, and a third arm for advocacy, attacking derogatory and discriminatory laws, enabling opportunities for persons with leprosy disabilities to be profitably employed, and providing necessary rehabilitation facilities. Health can never be adequately protected by health services without the active understanding and involvement of communities whose health is at stake. The review cautions that without a social multidisciplinary approach using community-based participatory techniques, we cannot provide access to effective and acceptable health care to leprosy-affected persons. Keywords: leprosy, stigma, social, MDT, health acces

A randomized clinical trial of oral steroids for ulnar neuropathy in type 1 and type 2 leprosy reactions Ensaio clínico sobre o tratamento com esteróides via oral da neuropatia ulnar em reação tipo 1 e tipo 2 da hanseníase

BACKGROUND: Steroids regimens in leprosy neuropathies are still controversial in botth types of reactions. METHOD: For this trial, 21 patients with ulnar neuropathy were selected from 163 leprosy patients, 12 with type 1 reaction (T1R) and nine with type 2 (T2R). One experimental group started with prednisone 2 mg/kg/day and the control group with 1 mg/kg/day. A clinical score based on tests for spontaneous pain, nerve palpation, sensory and muscle function was used. Neurophysiological evaluation consisted on the motor nerve conduction of the ulnar nerve in three segments. Student "t" test for statistical analysis was applied on the results: before treatment, first week, first month and sixth month, between each regimen and types of reaction. CONCLUSION: In both reactions during the first month higher doses of steroids produced better results but, earlier treatment with lower dose was as effective. Short periods of steroid, 1 mg/Kg/day at the beginning and,tapering to 0,5 mg/Kg/day or less in one month turned out to be efficient in T2R.<br>INTRODUÇÃO: O tratamento da neuropatia da hanseníase com esteróides é ainda controverso nos dois tipos de reações. MÉTODO: Neste ensaio, de 163 pacientes foram selecionados 21 com neuropatia ulnar, 12 com reação tipo 1 e 9 com tipo 2. Um grupo experimental iniciou com 2 mg/kg/dia e o grupo controle com 1 mg/kg/dia. Foi composto um escore clínico pela avaliação da sensação dolorosa espontânea, palpação de nervos e funções sensitiva e motora. Realizou-se a condução nervosa motora do nervo ulnar em três segmentos. Aplicaram-se os estudos estatísticos com o teste t de Student nos resultados: antes do tratamento, primeira semana, primeiro mês e sexto mês. CONCLUSÃO: Em ambas as reações dosagens mais elevadas iniciais produziram melhores resultados, mas a dose menor quando administrada precocemente foi igualmente efetiva. Períodos curtos com doses efetivas, 1 mg/Kg/dia no início e reduzindo-se para 0,5 mg/Kg/dia ou menos em um mês foram eficientes na reação tipo 2

Use of a whole blood assay to evaluate in vitro T cell responses to new leprosy skin test antigens in leprosy patients and healthy subjects

Development of an immunological tool to detect infection with Mycobacterium leprae would greatly benefit leprosy control programmes, as demonstrated by the contribution of the tuberculin test to tuberculosis control. In a new approach to develop a ‘tuberculin-like’ reagent for use in leprosy, two new fractions of M. leprae depleted of cross-reactive and immunomodulatory lipids— MLSA-LAM (cytosol-derived) and MLCwA (cell wall-derived)—have been produced in a form suitable for use as skin test reagents. T cell responses (interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) and lymphoproliferation) to these two new fractions were evaluated in a leprosy-endemic area of Nepal using a simple in vitro whole blood test. The two fractions were shown to be highly potent T cell antigens in subjects exposed to M. leprae—paucibacillary leprosy patients and household contacts. Responses to the fractions decreased towards the lepromatous pole of leprosy. Endemic control subjects also showed high responses to the fractions, indicating high exposure to M. leprae, or cross-reactive mycobacterial antigens, in this Nepali population. The new fractions, depleted of lipids and lipoarabinomannan (LAM) gave enhanced responses compared with a standard M. leprae sonicate. The cell wall fraction appeared a more potent antigen than the cytosol fraction, which may be due to the predominance of the 65-kD GroEL antigen in the cell wall. The whole blood assay proved a robust field tool and a useful way of evaluating such reagents prior to clinical trials