de Vries J L, Perry B H
Am J Epidemiol. 1985 Mar;121(3):403-13. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a114012.
The knowledge of leprosy epidemiology is still extremely limited as to basic epidemiologic characteristics. Only the infectious agent and the reservoir of infection have been firmly established. It is all the more surprising that very few studies of analytical leprosy epidemiology are reported in the literature. In order to contribute to the analysis of these characteristics, data are presented on the age and sex distribution of types of leprosy from the Pogiri Leprosy Control Project, a large leprosy control project in Andhra Pradesh, India. This data base includes records on biannual examination of some 160,000 household contacts of nearly 48,000 leprosy cases observed from five to nine years between 1962 and 1970. These data indicate a peak of leprosy prevalence and incidence in the age group 35-44 years. The sex differential in leprosy, observed in these data, appears more related to sex differences in social contact, as sex ratios of leprosy vary widely among different populations. Finally, the age distribution of tuberculoid leprosy shows a bimodal curve, with peaks at ages 10-14 and 35-44 years. The first peak appears related both to the occurrence of early and self-healing lesions in school children, and to the more frequent examination of school children. Additional observations are presented on type ratios of leprosy in single and multiple case households, and on per cent of single lesions for tuberculoid cases detected over time.
关于麻风病流行病学的基本特征，目前所知仍然极为有限。仅病原体和感染源已得到明确确认。更令人惊讶的是，文献中报道的麻风病分析流行病学研究极少。为有助于分析这些特征，本文呈现了印度安得拉邦一个大型麻风病防治项目——波吉里麻风病防治项目中麻风病类型的年龄和性别分布数据。该数据库包含了1962年至1970年期间对近48,000例麻风病病例的约160,000名家庭接触者进行的每两年一次检查的记录。这些数据表明，麻风病患病率和发病率在35 - 44岁年龄组达到峰值。从这些数据中观察到的麻风病性别差异，似乎更多地与社会接触中的性别差异有关，因为不同人群中麻风病的性别比例差异很大。最后，结核样型麻风病的年龄分布呈双峰曲线，峰值出现在10 - 14岁和35 - 44岁。第一个峰值似乎既与学龄儿童中早期自愈性病变的发生有关，也与对学龄儿童更频繁的检查有关。此外，还呈现了单病例家庭和多病例家庭中麻风病类型比例以及随时间检测到的结核样型病例中单发皮损百分比的相关观察结果。
