Clinico-epidemiological trends of leprosy in Himachal Pradesh: a five year study.

This retrospective study was done to determine the epidemiological and clinical profile of leprosy patients in a tertiary care centre, Indira Gandhi Medical College, Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, India. In this study, we included patients registered from January 2004 to December 2008 with the urban leprosy clinic of our tertiary care centre. Data regarding demographic details, clinical features, treatment and complications was extracted from the records of the leprosy clinic. 163 patients attended the clinic during this period with male to female ratio of 3:1. Majority of patients (47.8%) were in the middle age group (20-40 years) and 13.49% patients were < 20 years of age. In the clinical disease spectrum, 53.98% patients were in the borderline spectrum followed by lepromatous leprosy (33.12%) and polar tuberculoid leprosy (5.52%). Pure neuritic and indeterminate leprosy accounted for 3.06% each. Histoid lesions were present in 7.4% of lepromatous leprosy patients. 9.2% patients had definite history of contact in the family or neighborhood. 28.22% patients were immigrants either from Nepal or adjoining states of Himachal Pradesh. Epidemiological studies and contact tracing can decrease the disease burden and morbidity associated with the disease. Multidrug therapy (MDT) helps preventing and reducing the disease progression, severity and disabilities.