Leprosy among the tribal population: A profile from a rural and tribal based tertiary care leprosy center of Eastern India

Introduction: Leprosy is a chronic granulomatous disease mainly affecting the peripheral nerves and skin. Prevalence of leprosy dropped down worldwide after the advent of multidrug therapy. Very few studies on clinico-epidemiological patterns of leprosy had been reported among the tribal populations. Aims: To observe the different clinical types of leprosy among the tribal population and to find out bacteriological index, frequency of deformity and lepra reaction at presentation. Materials and Methods: It is an institution based cross sectional study conducted with 184 tribal leprosy patients attending leprosy OPD of a rural and tribal based tertiary care centre of west Bengal, from January 2016 to December 2016. Thorough history taking and clinical examination were done. Slit skin smear for AFB was performed to know the bacteriological index. Result: Mean age of tribal leprosy patients was 36.2 years with a sex ratio of 1:2.06. Borderline tuberculoid was the commonest form (47.82%). Pure neuritic leprosy was not uncommon (15.21%). Predominant location of skin lesion was upper limb. Commonest nerve involved was ulner nerve. Garde II deformity was noted in around 30% cases. High bacteriological index (BI> 3) was observed in 10.86% cases. Lepra reaction was observed in 25.9% cases. Conclusion: Pure neuritic leprosy and deformity of hand, feet and eye were common in this study. Early diagnosis and proper treatment should be made to prevent these deformities.