TRENDS OF CASE DETECTION AND OTHER INDICATORS OF LEPROSY IN CHINA DURING 1985-2002.

Objective To analyze the trends of case detection and other indicators of leprosy in China during 1985-2002. Methods Data reported by each province were collected by China National Leprosy Database in Nanjing P.R.China. All data about registered cases were put into computer for analysis. Results From 1985 to 2002, a total of 49477 leprosy new cases had been detected. Among them, 69.5% were multi- bacillary cases and 25.4% had grade 2 disability. The child cases aged below 15 years accounted for 3.74% of total cases. Totally, 5824 cases and 303 cases relapsed after dapsone (DDS) mono-therapy and multidrug therapy (MI)T), respectively. Case detection showed a marked reduction from 0.47/100 000 in 1985 to 0.18/100 000 in 1993 although there were several spurts due to operational factors. From 1994, case detection showed no significant decline. The grade 2 disability among new patients decreased from 31.4% in 1985 to 23.4% in 2002. The child case detection rate among new cases fluctuated between 2.70%-3.56% from 1999 to 2002. The incidence of relapse declined after the introduction of DDS mono-therapy. However, it increased after the introduction of MDT. Conclusion China experiences in leprosy control show that it will take a long time with continuing present leprosy control activities to bring down the case detection and other indicators to a very low level even after reaching the elimination goal of leprosy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]