Ganapati R, Revankar C R, Bandkar K R, Dongre V V
Indian J Lepr. 1984 Jul-Sep;56(3):622-5.
Most practical and cheap techniques other than mass surveys to detect leprosy in urban slums are still not known. The population inhabiting a large somewhat isolated slum in North Bombay was exposed to intensive health education programmes over a period of two years. Leprosy cases reporting as a result of these measures as well as those detected by trained workers casually or through contact examination were registered at two weekly clinics conducted within the slum. A total of 184 patients out of whom 27 were smear +ve, were identifiable by these means. The population of the slum was found to be 18228. Total prevalence rate of leprosy after examining 14723 subjects in the colony was revealed to be 24 per 1000 (smear +ve cases: 2.2. per 1000) out of which a prevalence of 12.4 per 1000 (smear +ve cases: 1.8 per 1000) had actually come to our knowledge even before instituting mass surveys. The results of this study indicate that in comparable urban situation it should be possible to identify 54% of total leprosy cases by techniques other than surveys. More significantly a striking feature of this study is that 82% of cases of true public health significance namely smear +ve patients could be unearthed by these means.
除大规模调查外，目前仍不清楚在城市贫民窟中检测麻风病的最实用且廉价的技术。孟买北部一个较大且相对孤立的贫民窟的居民，在两年时间里接受了密集的健康教育项目。因这些措施而报告的麻风病病例，以及由经过培训的工作人员偶然发现或通过接触检查发现的病例，都在贫民窟内每周举办两次的诊所进行登记。通过这些方式共识别出184名患者，其中27名涂片呈阳性。该贫民窟人口为18228人。在对该聚居地14723名受试者进行检查后，麻风病的总患病率为每1000人中有24例（涂片阳性病例：每1000人中有2.2例），其中在开展大规模调查之前，实际已知的患病率为每1000人中有12.4例（涂片阳性病例：每1000人中有1.8例）。这项研究的结果表明，在类似的城市环境中，通过调查以外的技术应该有可能识别出54%的麻风病病例。更重要的是，这项研究的一个显著特点是，通过这些方法可以发现82%具有真正公共卫生意义的病例，即涂片阳性患者。
