Indian J Lepr. 1995 Jan-Mar;67(1):13-26.
Until the introduction by WHO of the standard regimens using multidrug therapy (MDT) for the treatment of leprosy, there was a general unwillingness to release patients from treatment. This was mainly due to the high risk of relapse after dapsone monotherapy. After almost a decade of MDT implementation and after releasing more than 4 million patients, it was necessary for WHO to review the risk of relapse following WHO-recommended MDT. The results of this study, carried out on more than 20,000 MB and 50,000 PB patients, revealed that the risk of relapse is very low, 0.77% for MB and 1.07% for PB, nine years after stopping MDT. In comparison to dapsone monotherapy, the risk is 10-times lower. Thus, over the last decade, MDT implementation has probably prevented close to half-a-million relapses.
在世卫组织采用多药疗法（MDT）标准方案治疗麻风病之前，人们普遍不愿意让患者停止治疗。这主要是因为氨苯砜单药治疗后复发风险很高。在实施MDT近十年并释放了400多万名患者之后，世卫组织有必要重新审视按照世卫组织推荐的MDT治疗后复发的风险。这项针对2万多名多菌型（MB）和5万多名少菌型（PB）患者开展的研究结果显示，停止MDT治疗九年后，复发风险非常低，MB患者为0.77%，PB患者为1.07%。与氨苯砜单药治疗相比，风险降低了10倍。因此，在过去十年中，实施MDT可能预防了近50万例复发。
