An attempt towards prevention and management of disabilities and deformities in leprosy.

History of prevention of deformities is practically as old as the appearance of the deformities themselves, unfortunately without much understanding to start with. In medieval era and even earlier, leprosy and deformities were treated synonymously and the disease's infectivity too was closely associated with appearance of deformities. Hence, to reduce chances of deformities caused by leprosy in healthy population, the patients having deformities were driven away from the society presuming that only deformed patients spread the disease. Unfortunately, it never worked. However, in later period, factors behind the deformities and disabilities were recognized and understood. These are basically limited to involvement of peripheral nerves and their proper management (medical treatment, surgical interventions, physiotherapy, ergonomics and counseling) by one rule of thumb i.e. early, timely and adequately.