Epidemiologic patterns of leprosy in Vallegrande, Bolivia
1983; British Leprosy Relief Association; Volume: 54; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.5935/0305-7518.19830008
ISSN2162-8807
Autores Tópico(s)Leprosy Research and Treatment
ResumoThe Andean province of Valle grande (6,412 km 2 ; 33,532 inhabi tants, of which 99% are mestizos of Indian-Caucasian descent) has been an endemic area of leprosy for centuries.In 1977 the National Center for Tropical Diseases-CENETROP integrated the existing leprosy control activities in a comprehensive basic health service.The clinical status of all known cases was assessed, and an important effort at case finding was carried out by the basic health teams and the mobile leprosy control team.The overall prevalence rate on 31 July 1980 was 9.4 per thousand .The leprosy problem was mainly one of adults, the prevalence rate in males being 60% higher than in fe males.The proportion of lepromatous and borderline forms was 47% .The epidemiological patterns of leprosy in Va1legrande Province are consistent with those generally found in Latin America.Leprosy is endemic in Bolivia, a landlocked country (1 ,098,000 km2 , 5,570,105 inhabitants according to the 1976 census) situated in the heart of South America.The overall estimated prevalence rate is rather low: around one per thousand.In 1976 there were 1705 registered cases but 5 , 629 estimated;1 in 1977 1832 registered but 3907 estimated cases.2These differences probably do not reflect changes in endemicity, but accentuate the level of uncertainty in assessing the endemicity.The cases are mainly concentrated in three areas:
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