Leprosy in the post-elimination era: a clinico-epidemiological study from a northern Indian tertiary care hospital

INTRODUCTION: Leprosy is a chronic disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae. Despite being eliminated from India in 2005, there are still a considerable number of leprosy cases. METHODS: A prospective hospital-based study involving all leprosy patients attending the leprosy clinic at the Department of Dermatology from January 2015 to December 2016. RESULTS: A total of 220 patients visited the leprosy clinic during the study period. Most of the patients (48.7%) were 20 to 40 years old. Multibacillary disease was more common in females (84.7%) than males (67.6%), and in rural patients (80.9%) than urban patients (64.8%). Borderline lepromatous leprosy was the most common (38.2%) type of leprosy seen, followed by lepromatous leprosy (28.2%) and borderline tuberculoid leprosy (21.4%). CONCLUSIONS: Despite elimination, leprosy continues to be a health problem in this part of the world. We have shown that females and the rural population are more susceptible to multibacillary disease.