Leprosy and disabilities
Abstract
Introduction: untreated leprosy causes disabilities making it a serious disease and not well understood by the population.
Method: a descriptive, observational study on the presence and characteristics of disabilities caused by leprosy in the leper colony of Micomiseng town of Equatorial Guinea in the period between January and October 2012. 24 patients were studied, their injuries were identified and their disabilities were classified according to the classification of the World Health Organization (WHO).
Results: from 24 patients, 23 of them had disabilities and all of them presented grade 2. The predominant causes of disability in our study were bone resorption, present in 22 of the patients studied.
Conclusions: disability caused by leprosy have high prevalence (95.8%) in this study, and the majority are classified as severe disabilities as grade 2. It located more frequently in the lower limbs (16-69.5%). The disabilities of the hands, was 26% (6 cases) and only 1 case was detected with ocular involvement. Osseous injuries with disabilities were the most significant clinical expressions with 95.6% (22 cases) followed by ulcers which contributed 21.7% (5 cases), which are more common in deformed limbs (4 cases).
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