Relapses in multibacillary patients treated with multi-drug therapy until smear negativity: findings after twenty years

The Schieffelin Leprosy Research and Training Center at Karigiri, India participated in several of the World Health Organization (WHO) trials. The first trial on combined therapy in multi-bacillary leprosy was initiated in 1981. The main objectives of this field trial were to evaluate the efficacy of WHO recommended regimens in preventing relapses, especially drug resistance relapses. This paper reports on the relapses twenty years after patients were inducted into the WHO field trial.Between 1981 and 1982, 1067 borderline lepromatous and lepromatous patients were inducted into the WHO field trial for combined therapy in multi-bacillary leprosy trial. Among them, 357 patients were skin smear positive. During the follow-up in 2002, only 173 of them could be traced and assessed. The mean duration of follow-up was 16.4 +/- 1.83 years. Two patients relapsed 14 and 15 years after being released from treatment, the relapse rate being 0.07 per 100 person years follow-up. Drug susceptibility tests done on one of the relapsed patients revealed drug sensitive organisms to all multi-drug therapy drugs.