Kanica Kaushal1. 1. Department of Community Medicine and Family Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India. E-mail: kanicak8@gmail.com.
Sir,This is in reference to the article titled, “Cutaneous leishmaniasis in a nonendemic area of South Rajasthan: A prospective study,” published in Indian J Dermatol 2016;61:521-4.[1]The authors have done a commendable job to describe clinicoepidemiological profile of the cases of cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) from South Rajasthan, which is a nonendemic area of Rajasthan.However, the authors have written in the title of their study that they have done a prospective study.Although the present study was conducted over a period of 4 years (2010–2014), it does not qualify to be called as a prospective study, as in a prospective cohort study, the participants are selected based on the exposure status of the individual. Thus, some of the participants may have the exposure and others do not have the exposure at the time of initiation of the study. They are then followed over time to evaluate for the occurrence of the outcome of interest.[2]For conducting a prospective study, the authors should have first defined the population that will be included in the cohort which they have not. Second, no participants are classified as exposed or unexposed by the authors based on the potential/suspected exposure of interest for CL. Further, the authors needed to have collected the information on the important variables regarding this study both at baseline and during follow-up and finally study the outcomes.This study qualifies for setting up of a “Disease Registry” for CL. Disease registry is a collection of information about individuals, usually focused on a specific diagnosis or condition. Participation in a registry is likely to increase what we know about a specific condition, help health-care professionals improve treatment, and allow researchers to design better studies on a particular condition, including development and testing of new treatments.[3]