摘要:Planning for disease control requires estimates of the number of leprosy patients from local to global levels. From the mid-sixties to the mid-eighties, global estimates appeared to be constant at between 10 and 12 million. The introduction of multidrug therapy (MDT) in many countries and the consequent reduction of prevalence of the disease has necessitated a reassessment of the global estimate. Based on available information and its interpretation, the number of leprosy cases in the world in 1991 has been estimated at 5.5 million. The number of individuals with deformities due to leprosy, including persons now cured of the disease, has been estimated at between 2 and 3 million. Full text Full text is available as a scanned copy of the original print version. Get a printable copy (PDF file) of the complete article (527K), or click on a page image below to browse page by page. Links to PubMed are also available for Selected References . 7 8 9 10