Current approaches and future directions in the treatment of leprosy

Abstract

This review surveys current treatments and future treatment trends in leprosy from a clinical perspective. The World Health Organization provides a multidrug treatment regimen that targets the Mycobacterium leprae bacillus which causes leprosy. Several investigational drugs are available for the treatment of drug-resistant M. leprae. Future directions in leprosy treatment will focus on: the molecular signaling mechanism M. leprae uses to avoid triggering an immune response; prospective studies of the side effects experienced during multiple-drug therapy; recognition of relapse rates post-completion of designated treatments; combating multidrug resistance; vaccine development; development of new diagnostic tests; and the implications of the recent discovery of a genetically distinct leprosy-causing bacillus, Mycobacterium lepromatosis.

Keywords:

• epidemiology
• leprosy
• Hansen’s disease
• multidrug resistance
• multidrug therapy

Disclosure

The author has no financial interest in any of the items discussed. The author reports no conflicts of interest in this work.

Notes

a A slit-skin smear consists of a shallow incision followed by scraping the inner wound surface with a blade held at a right angle to the incision. Tissue fluid and dermal tissue are obtained from the scraping and transferred from the blade to a clean microscopic slide, where a circular smear is made.