CASE REPORT
Leprosy – neglected tropical disease in Pygmies inhabiting Central African Republic
| 1 | 4th Department of Infectious Diseases, Hospital for Infectious Diseases, Warsaw, Poland |
| 2 | Faculty of Medicine, Collegium Medicum, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University, Warsaw, Poland |
| 3 | Department of Epidemiology and Tropical Medicine, Military Institute of Medicine, Warsaw, Poland |
| 4 | Department of Tropical Medicine and Epidemiology, Medical University / Institute of Maritime and Tropical Medicine, Gdańsk, Poland |
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Emilia Bylicka-Szczepanowska
Warsaw's Hospital for Infectious Diseases: Wojewodzki Szpital Zakazny, 4th Department of Infectious Diseases., 37 Wolska St., 01-201, Warsaw, Poland
Warsaw's Hospital for Infectious Diseases: Wojewodzki Szpital Zakazny, 4th Department of Infectious Diseases., 37 Wolska St., 01-201, Warsaw, Poland
KEYWORDS
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
Leprosy is a neglected tropical disease that is still present worldwide despite efforts aimed at elimination of the disease. The BaAka Pygmy community inhabiting rural areas in the Central African Republic is one of the most leprosy-vulnerable populations. The aim of the study was to assess the prevalence of leprosy in the BaAka Pygmy population. People living in the Dzanga Sangha protected area were regularly visited by a mobile clinic in 2019/2020. The diagnosis was based on the clinical manifestation of the disease. Deformations of skin and extremities were assessed. In a 12-month period 26 cases of leprosy were diagnosed and 25 patients received treatment. 24 of those patients were BaAka Pygmies, 10 were women, 7 were children under 15 years old and 8 were diagnosed with grade 2 disability. Presented data shows that leprosy in Dzanga Sangha region is not well controlled due to the high transmission rate. Efforts to diagnose and report new leprosy cases should be intensified.
ABBREVIATIONS
DS – Dzanga Sangha; CAR – Central African Republic; WHO – World Health Organization; MDT – Multidrug therapy; MB – multibacillary; PB – paucibacillary; G2D – Grade 2 Disability
REFERENCES (30)
1.
WHO. Leprosy. Who.int. Published January 11, 2022. Accessed February 19, 2022. https://www.who.int/news-room/....
2.
Stanford University. History of Leprosy. web.stanford.edu. Published February 26, 2019. Accessed March 2022. https://web.stanford.edu/group....
3.
Leprosy – NORD (National Organization for Rare Disorders). NORD (National Organization for Rare Disorders). Published 2015. Accessed March 12, 2022. https://rarediseases.org/rare-....
4.
The Lancet. Abandoning the stigma of leprosy. The Lancet. 2019;393(10170):378. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(19)30164-3.
5.
Wikipedia. Mycobacterium leprae. Wikipedia. Published March 28, 2021. Accessed February 19, 2022. https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/....
6.
Ewa AK, Zofia Z. Some aspects of Mycobacterium leprae biology. CzytelniaMedycznapl. Published online October 2011:895–903. Accessed February 19, 2022. https://www.czytelniamedyczna.....
7.
Han XY, Seo YH, Sizer KC, et al. A new Mycobacterium species causing diffuse lepromatous leprosy. Am J Clin Pathol. 2008;130(6):856–864. doi:10.1309/AJCPP72FJZZRRVMM.
8.
Garbino JA, Marques W Jr, Barreto JA, et al. Primary neural leprosy: systematic review. Arq Neuropsiquiatr. 2013;71(6):397–404. doi:10.1590/0004-282X20130046.
9.
de Macedo CS, Lara FA, Pinheiro RO, et al. New insights into the pathogenesis of leprosy: contribution of subversion of host cell metabolism to bacterial persistence, disease progression, and transmission. F1000Res. 2020;9:F1000 Faculty Rev-70. Published 2020 Jan 31. doi:10.12688/f1000research.21383.
10.
Han XY, Sizer KC, Velarde-Félix JS, Frias-Castro LO, Vargas-Ocampo F. The leprosy agents Mycobacterium lepromatosis and Mycobacterium leprae in Mexico. Int J Dermatol. 2012;51(8):952–959. doi:10.1111/j.1365-4632.2011.05414.
11.
Scollard D, Stryjewska B, Dacso M. Leprosy: Epidemiology, microbiology, clinical manifestations, and diagnosis. www.uptodate.com. Published October 21, 2022. Accessed May 24, 2022. https://www.uptodate.com/conte....
12.
World Health Organization. Global leprosy (Hansen’s disease) update, 2020: impact of COVID-19 on global leprosy control. Weekly Epidemiological Record. 2021;96(36):421–444. Accessed March 17, 2022. https://apps.who.int/iris/hand....
13.
World Health Organization. WHO Technical Report Series. WHO; 2012. Accessed March 31, 2022. https://apps.who.int/iris/hand....
14.
World Health Organization. Guidelines for the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of leprosy. www.who.int. Published October 18, 2018. Accessed February 18, 2022. https://www.who.int/publicatio....
15.
Ploemacher T, Faber WR, Menke H, Rutten V, Pieters T. Reservoirs and transmission routes of leprosy; A systematic review. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2020;14(4):e0008276. Published 2020 Apr 27. doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.
16.
Avanzi C, Del-Pozo J, Benjak A, et al. Red squirrels in the British Isles are infected with leprosy bacilli. Science. 2016;354(6313):744–747. doi:10.1126/science.aah3783.
17.
Hambridge T, Nanjan Chandran SL, Geluk A, Saunderson P, Richardus JH. Mycobacterium leprae transmission characteristics during the declining stages of leprosy incidence: A systematic review. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2021;15(5):e0009436. Published 2021 May 26. doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.
18.
Schneider J. War and conservation – DW – 12/20/2018. dw.com. Published December 20, 2018. Accessed December 3, 2022. https://www.dw.com/en/conserva....
19.
United Nations. Over 600 people killed, 159,000 displaced in Central African Republic – UN. UN News. Published December 13, 2013. Accessed February 18, 2022. https://news.un.org/en/story/2....
20.
BBC. Central African Republic: President Bozize flees Bangui. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/world.... Published March 24, 2013. Accessed March 10, 2022.
21.
World Health Organization. Leprosy (Hansen’s disease). www.who.int. Published 2022. Accessed February 21, 2022. https://www.who.int/data/gho/d....
22.
World Health Organization. Guide to eliminate leprosy as a public health problem. apps.who.int. Published 2000. Accessed May 23, 2022. https://apps.who.int/iris/hand....
23.
Chengeta Wildlife. Etude Socio-Économique de Base Avec Un Programme de Suivi et d’Évaluation de L’impact; 2022.
24.
CDC. CDC – Neglected Tropical Diseases – Diseases. www.cdc.gov. Published November 15, 2019. Accessed March 12, 2022. https://www.cdc.gov/globalheal....
25.
World Health Organization. Neglected tropical diseases. www.who.int. Published November 14, 2021. Accessed March 12, 2022. https://www.who.int/news-room/....
27.
World Health Organization. Global leprosy(Hansen disease) update, 2019: time to step-up prevention initiatives. Weekly epidemiological record. 2020;95(36):417–440. Accessed March 17, 2022. https://apps.who.int/iris/bits....
28.
The World Bank. GDP per capita (current US$) | Data. 2022. Available from: https://data.worldbank.org/ind... [cited 3 December 2022].
29.
de Carvalho FM, Rodrigues LS, Duppre NC, et al. Interruption of persistent exposure to leprosy combined or not with recent BCG vaccination enhances the response to Mycobacterium leprae specific antigens. Azman AS, ed. PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases. 2017;11(5):e0005560. doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0005560.
30.
Hockings KJ, Mubemba B, Avanzi C, et al. Leprosy in wild chimpanzees. Nature. 2021;598(7882):652–656. doi:10.1038/s41586-021-03968-4.
RELATED ARTICLE
Improvement of visual identification of the journal - task financed under the agreement No. 618/P-DUN/2019 by the Minister of Science and Higher Education allocated to the activities of disseminating science.
Generation of the DOI (Digital Object Identifier) - task financed under the agreement No. 618/P-DUN/2019 by the Minister of Science and Higher
We process personal data collected when visiting the website. The function of obtaining information about users and their behavior is carried out by voluntarily entered information in forms and saving cookies in end devices. Data, including cookies, are used to provide services, improve the user experience and to analyze the traffic in accordance with the Privacy policy. Data are also collected and processed by Google Analytics tool (more).
You can change cookies settings in your browser. Restricted use of cookies in the browser configuration may affect some functionalities of the website.
You can change cookies settings in your browser. Restricted use of cookies in the browser configuration may affect some functionalities of the website.