Nebout M
Médecin en Chef SSA (CR), Rebigue, France.
Acta Leprol. 1991;7(4):351-7.
The latest epidemiologic enquiries realized in West Africa and Central Africa have shown that real prevalence of leprosy is far greater, at least twice the number of patients than are actually listed in the medical records. This data proves that the fight against leprosy is highly inefficient and stresses the partial failure of the anti-hansenian strategy that has been adopted for over 10 years in this area, in spite of the use of rifampicin in multidrug therapy which would normally cure leprosy. Therefore we suggest that the fight against leprosy should be re-organised and reinforced in high endemic areas. The anti-hansenian programmes should be carried out by specific services composed of mobile and specialised teams whose task would be to aim for the early detection and continual testing for new cases. Only with this kind of organisation can chemotherapy be administered at the beginning, therefore arresting the disease before it reaches the multi-neuritis stage. This strategy offers great epidemiologic and economic advantages and would also give hope and dignity to the patients assured of a permanent cure. Leprosy would then be classed as a disease "just like any other".
最近在西非和中非开展的流行病学调查显示，麻风病的实际患病率要高得多，患者数量至少是医疗记录中实际列出的两倍。这一数据证明，抗击麻风病的工作效率极低，并凸显了在该地区采用了十多年的抗汉森病战略部分失败，尽管在多药疗法中使用了利福平，而这种疗法通常可以治愈麻风病。因此，我们建议在高流行地区重新组织并加强对抗麻风病的斗争。抗汉森病项目应由由流动和专业团队组成的特定服务部门来实施，其任务是致力于早期发现并持续检测新病例。只有通过这种组织方式，才能在一开始就进行化疗，从而在疾病发展到多神经炎阶段之前将其遏制。这种策略具有巨大的流行病学和经济优势，也将给有望获得永久治愈的患者带来希望和尊严。届时，麻风病将被归类为“与其他任何疾病一样”的疾病。
