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- Published on: 7 April 2017
- Published on: 7 April 2017SPECIAL ATTENTION NEEDED
Leprosy Post-Exposure Prophylaxis (LPEP) programmes is a good initiative for tropical stigmatized disease leprosy.
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A single dose of rifampicin given to contacts of new patients with leprosy was found to be 57% effective in preventing the development of clinical leprosy after two years.1 The findings of the study helps to use single dose rifampicin as a cheap and practical preventive intervention for contacts of patients with leprosy control programmes but implementing in the field is a promising act.
The protocol of LPEP is designed nicely for evaluating the feasibility and its impact on case detection rates by contact tracing and administration of single dose rifampicin for consented contacts. There are few more points to be considered when it is implemented in the practical set up or in the field. A note or information regarding the adverse effects or flu like syndrome should be noted in the protocol. Even though the side effects/adverse events are rarely seen in a single dose it is mandate to note the possible adverse events/effects due to rifampicin.
It was found that approximately 5063 were females in rifampicin received group in the study by Moet et al1. As the protocol clearly mentioned regarding the age restrictions in pediatrics and pregnancy status as an exclusion criteria, the reproductive age group especially women should be interviewed properly regarding her plan for pregnancy or plan for postponement of pregnancy by means of any drugs or bar...Conflict of Interest:
None declared.