leprosy

1. LEPROSY
Represented by
Nirjesh Kumar
B.Pharm 4th
Year
MAHATMA GANDHI INSTITUTE OF PHARMACY

2. Leprosy(Hansen’s Disease)

3. CONTENT
 Leprosy
 Introduction
 Singh and symptom
 Transmission
 Diagnosis
 Treatment
 References

4. What is Leprosy?
 It is a chronic infectious disease
 characterized by lesions of the
peripheral nerve, skin, and mucus
membrane of the URT.
 World's oldest recorded disease
 Stigmatized disease
Every year January 27 is World Leprosy Day

5. Introduction
A chronic infectious disease caused by the bacterium
Mycobacterium leprae .
Gerhard Henrik Armauer Hansen was a physician which first
identified Mycobacterium leprae as the cause of leprosy in
1873 .

6. What are the types of leprosy?
○ Lepromatous: damages respiration, eyes, and skin
(Paucibacillary Leprosy (PB)
○ Tuberculoid: affects nerves in fingers and toes, and
surrounding skin (Multibacillary Leprosy (MB)

7. How the human body is affected
by Leprosy
Nerve is
damaged and
broken by
leprosy
infection.
Large bumps (legions)
on the skin that do not
heel and cannot feel
pain.
Nerve
Leprosy infection

8. Singh and symptom
 Mycobacterium leprare multiplies very
slowly
 Symptoms can take as long as 20 years
to appear
 Development of disease take from
months to years (1 year to 7 years)

13.  Sensory Loss
 Paralysis
Outcomes of Nerve Damage

14. Transmission
• Nasal/oral Droplets Dermal Inoculations
The transmission of leprosy is thought to occur through the
respiratory track.
Risk group: children, people living in endemic areas, in poor
conditions, with insufficient diet, or have a disease that
compromises their immunity (i.e HIV).

15. DIAGNOSIS
 Is clinical, by finding signs of leprosy and supported with the use of
acid-fast bacilli smear or skin biopsy.
 But this is contingent on experienced histopathologist.
 What doctors typically look for include: anaesthesia of skin lesions,
and peripheral nerve thickening and tenderness .
 There is no serological test.
Note: The genome has been sequenced .
15

16. Treatment

17. Chemotherapy
- First line drugs are rifampicin, dapsone, and clofazimine.
- The WHO recommends that if a patient test positive in an
acid-fast skin smear they should be treated for
multibacillary disease .
- The patients bacterial load decides length of treatment (6-
24 months).
- Patients tend to improve quickly with minimal side-effects.
17

18. - Second line drugs are ofloxacin and minocycline .
- Triple –drug combinations have been used in cases
where a patient has only a single lesion.
- Leprosy is combated with multidrug therapy to reduce
the chance of developing resistance.
- Since in the 1960’s resistance to dapsone developed .

19. 1941: Discovery of Dapsone
 Targets dihydropteroate
synthase (DHPS)
 Inhibits nucleic acid
synthesis

20. 1964: Dapsone Resistance from Missense
Mutations in DHPS

21. 1960’s: Rifampicin and
Clofazimine Discovered
Rifampicin (Rifampin):
Inhibit RNA synthesis
Clofazimine:
Anti-inflammatory

23. 1995: WHO Distributes MDT Drugs for Free to
Worldwide Patients

25. References
1. Leprosy Today. “Leprosy: The Disease.” World Health Organization.
http://www.who.int/lep/leprosy/en/index.html (accessed February 25 2010).
2. Matsuoka, Masanori M. 2010. “Drug Resistance in Leprosy.” Japanese journal of
infectious diseases 63, no. 1: 1-7. http://www.nih.go.jp.libproxy.lib.unc.edu (accessed
February 25, 2010).
3. National Hansen’s Disease (Leprosy) Program. “Hansen’s Disease (Leprosy) Facts.”
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. http://www.hrsa.gov/hansens/
Accessed February 25 2010.
4. Scollard, DM, LB Adams, TP Gillis, JL Krahenbuhl , RW Truman, and DL Williams.
2006. “The continuing challenges of leprosy.” Clinical microbiology reviews 19, no. 2:
338-81. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.libproxy.lib.unc.edu (accessed February 25,
2010).
5. Worobec, Sophie M. 2009. “Treatment of leprosy/Hansen's disease in the early 21st
century.” Dermatologic therapy 22, no. 6: 518-37.
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com.libproxy.lib.unc.edu (accessed February 25, 2010.

27. THANKS
YOU