The effect of leprosy management on leprosy complications at Alupe Hospital, Busia, Kenya.

A retrospective study of leprosy complications among new cases recruited for multiple drug therapy (MDT) at Alupe Leprosy Hospital between January 1986 and January 1992 was carried out to determine their prevalence, incidence and their relationship with disease classification. Out of 154 cases studied majority fell in the Borderline tuberculoid (BT) class (47%). The total follow up period was 186 person years giving an overall incidence rate of reactions of 20 per 100 person years. Overall point prevalence of complications for both males and females were highest in the extremities and ranged between 10% and 46% while the overall period prevalence ranged between 14% and 73% per year. There was a significant number of incident cases of complications during the follow-up period and comparison of different complications with different disease classes had odds ratios of around unity showing that MDT alone as an intervention measure plays no significant role in onset or progress of leprosy complications. It is observed that Borderline tuberculoid (BT) and Borderline lepromatous (BL) leprosy patients are at the highest risk of developing leprosy complications.