Monchy D, Huerre M, Crouzat M, Dubourdieu D, Duval P, Sottil J P
Laboratoire d'Anatomie Pathologique, Institut Pasteur de Nouvelle-Calédonie, Nouméa.
Bull Soc Pathol Exot. 1994;87(1):28-32.
New Caledonia is a South Pacific Island inhabited by more than 170,000 people: most of them are melanesians or europeans. Multidrug therapy for Hansen disease has been employed since 1983; so we made an epidemiologic and histopathologic study of the new cases diagnosed for 10 years, from 1983 to 1992. Local (clinical, histological, microbiological and immunological) means of diagnosis are described. In New Caledonia, the endemic level is lower than in the small neighbouring Pacific islands but there is still a native reservoir of Mycobacterium leprae with 40% multibacillary types. Nearly half of the new cases are less than 25 years old. They are often male melanesians. The diagnosis of indeterminate forms is debated when there is no acid-fast bacillus. Border-line forms are rare. Tuberculoid leprosy poses many differential diagnosis problems. Despite available multidrug therapy, one cannot yet consider that the incidence is decreasing significantly.
新喀里多尼亚是南太平洋的一个岛屿，有17万多人居住，其中大多数是美拉尼西亚人或欧洲人。自1983年以来一直采用联合化疗治疗麻风病；因此，我们对1983年至1992年这10年间诊断出的新病例进行了流行病学和组织病理学研究。描述了诊断的局部（临床、组织学、微生物学和免疫学）方法。在新喀里多尼亚，地方流行程度低于邻近的太平洋小岛屿，但仍然存在麻风分枝杆菌的本地疫源地，40%为多菌型。近一半的新病例年龄小于25岁。他们通常是美拉尼西亚男性。当没有抗酸杆菌时，对未定类麻风的诊断存在争议。界线类麻风罕见。结核样型麻风存在许多鉴别诊断问题。尽管有可用的联合化疗，但目前还不能认为发病率正在显著下降。
