Clinico-bacteriological study was done in 51 leprosy patients below 14 years of
age. Majority of the patients were males in the age group of 11-14 years. Nearly 84% had not received any prior treatment because of
lack of awareness and financial constraints. Only 11.76% had a positive contact
history. Skin lesions were present in all cases and 84.3% had lesions mainly on
the exposed areas of the body and their number was found to increase significantly
with advancing age (p < 0.005). These lesions were hypo-pigmented
patches in 88% cases. 88% of cases had hypo-anesthesia and nerve thickening was
observed in 24% cases. The most common type of skin lesion was borderline tuberculoid (BT) in 53% cases.
Positivity of the skin smears increased significantly as the number of the skin
lesions per patient increased (p <0.001). Multibacillary cases were seen
in 15.6% of cases and found only in the age group of 10-14 years of age. No statistically significant
association between BCG vaccination and prevention of leprosy was seen.
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