Prevalence of Hansen's disease in the Francisco Rojas neighborhood of the municipality of Tipitapa

Abstract

The present study made it possible to evaluate the prevalence of Hansen's Disease in the Francisco Rojas neighborhood of the municipality of Tipitapa, in the department of Managua, during the period from December 2012 to February 2013. In order to meet this objective, home visits were made to patients' contacts Diagnosed with Hansen's Disease during the years 2000 to 2012 in the National Center of Dermatology, called these as guiding cases. During these visits, a complete skin inspection was performed on all contacts, resulting in patients with suspicious lesions of the disease, who underwent smear microscopy and biopsy to confirm the diagnosis and classify the disease. Starting from the 9 cases, 6 new cases emerged. The prevalence of the disease for the year 2012 in the Francisco Rojas neighborhood was 10.85 per 10,000 inhabitants, the detection rate was 13.02 per 10,000 inhabitants and the proportion of cases in children under 15 years was 16.66%. Taking these indicators into account, it can be concluded that there is an active focus of leprosy in the Francisco Rojas neighborhood of the municipality of Tipitapa, and because of its epidemiological characteristics it must be considered a public health problem. Therefore it is recommended to prioritize the design of a program of care and epidemiological surveillance of Hansen's Disease for a better control in the transmission of the same.