An analysis of relapsed leprosy cases.

An analysis of relapsed leprosy cases registered in the urban leprosy centre attached to the department of Dermatology and Venereology over the last 5 years was carried out. The characteristics of these cases including the clinical features, the types of treatment given and its duration were studied. The percentage of relapse for this period was 3.88% with paucibacillary cases showing more susceptibility for relapse (5.4%) than multibacillary cases (2.15%). The percentage of relapse increased year by year. Prolonged treatment and even multibacillary regime in paucibacillary cases did not prevent relapse. Hence relapse may be inherent in certain cases of leprosy which is unaffected by extraneous factors like type of treatment and its duration.