'Pulsed' rifampicin therapy in leprosy. A clinical study.

A trial of monthly administration of Rifampicin in 2 doses of 900 mg each on successive days for 3 months along with DDS 100 mg daily has been undertaken. The results have been compared with 2 groups of controls, one, which was administered 300 mg Rifampicin daily for 3 months followed by DDS, and the other which received 100 mg DDS alone. The findings show that the efficacy of this pulsed regimen is almost similar to continuous rifampicin administration and better than DDS alone. No significant adverse effects were encountered in the trial. The regimen thus merits large scale trials in the field.