Leprosy was highly prevalent on Korea until about past 15 years, however became
markedly lower In prevalence as 0.1 person per a thousand population reported by WHO.
In spite of a considerable decrease, it continuosly and newly develope until recent days
by an incorrect understanding and prejudice, a dapsone resistance and recurrent
infections.
We try to evaluate a clinical status and incidence rate of newly developed leprosy
patients throughout a long period of 30 years in outpatient clinic. They were 943
patients detected at the Department of Dermatology at Chonnam University Hospital
during a thirty-year-period(1969-1998).
Average incidence of new leprosy patient was 0.78% among total out patients. It was
peak as 3.09% during 1969-1973, then markedly decrease as 1.46%, 0.66%, 0.15%, 0.2%
and 0.11% respectively in every 5 years periods. Most prevalent age group was 30-39
years old as 21.8% in total patients, however became 50-59 years groups in recent 10
years(1989-98). In each clinical types, it was at 20-29 years old in lepromatous and
tuberculoid type, at 50-59 years in borderline, and 30-39 years in indeterminate type.
Male patient was prevalent as 1.9 times in all patients. and as 2.9 times especially in
lepromatous type, compared to equal ratio of tuberculoid type during recent 10 years.
Percents of each clinical types in all patients were 52.3%, 30.4%, 11.6%, and 5.7%
respectively in tuberculous, lepromatous, borderline, and indeterminate. However, there
were some changes of clinical types by passing the time.
Tuberculous type was most prevalent as 59.3% during 1969-73 years, and
progressively decreased as 25% in 1994-98 years. Borderline type revealed an increased
tendency from 4.9% during 1969-73 to 20.8% during 1994-98.
These results demonstrate that leprosy is not yet completely resolved even though the
occurrence of leprosy patients was markedly already declined. On the purpose of radical
eradication, early detection of multibacillary leprosy and preferable MDT are suggested
to be very important.
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