Childhood leprosy in a rural hospital.

Sixty six cases of childhood leprosy were studied in detail. They comprised of 7.2% of the Hansen's disease cases and 0.1/1000 of the total hospital out patients. Male: female ratio was 2:1. Four cases (6%) only belonged to the multibacillary group. All the multibacillary patients had a family contact of leprosy. Twelve cases (18.2%) showed nerve involvement and 2 cases (3%) had deformities also. One patient had pure neuritic type of leprosy. Leprosy reactions were not observed in any case. Out of 42 patients adequately followed up after completion of treatment, 3 patients (7.1%) had relapse of the disease.