Disability profile in leprosy patients' diagnoses in a rural reference leprosy centre in Ethiopia during 1999-2009.

We assessed the epidemiology of disabilities in leprosy cases treated in a rural hospital over a 10-year period. This is a retrospective data collection using leprosy registers and treatment cards in a rural private mission hospital. Over the 10-year period, 210 patients with leprosy were registered for treatment. One hundred and twenty-eight (61.5%) had disabilities (26.0% grade 1 and 35.6% grade 2): 13.5% ocular disabilities, 44.5% disabilities in hands and 44.7% foot impairment. Patients >19 years had more disabilities (66.7% versus 50.7%) (P = 0.03), especially ocular disabilities (16.7% in >20 versus 6.0% in <20 years) (P = 0.03). This study detected a high prevalence of disabilities.