A review on Hansen's disease

Hanseńs disease or leprosy is considered a pre-eradicated condition in Spain, with a prevalence rate of 0.1 cases per 10,000 inhabitants (below 1 case per 10,000 inhabitants, which was the World Health Organizatiońs health goal worldwide for year 2000). The purpose of this review was to study this disease with a particular focus on its clinical aspects (diagnosis, forms, complications, etc.) and drug therapy. Main sources used for this review included Micromedex Healthcare System, PudMed, Cochrane Library, and World Health Organization recommendations. Leprosy is characterized by the existence of various clinical forms, among which tuberculoid leprosy and lepromatous leprosy stand out, even though a wide variety of intermediate forms may appear between these two extremes. The high complexity and variability of forms and clinical pictures, together with epidemiology and drug accessibility- since the disease shows a high prevalence in a number of developing countries-results in various treatment regimens being currently used. This makes eradication difficult and contributes to the existence of many different treatments following different recommendations on leprosy, as is the case with WHO-delivered guidelines. However, current treatments share a common base made up of several combined drugs, particularly rifampicin, dapsone, and clofazimin. Active principles most recently added to the multitherapy of leprosy include fluoroquinolones, tetracyclines, and macrolides. The most significant conclusion on this disease is that leprosy is currently considered a scarcely transmitted (natural resistance in 95% of the population), easily diagnosed, and good prognosis condition when early diagnosis and adequate treatment occur. Patient contagiousness disappears within a few weeks after treatment onset, and a normal community life may be led.