Bilan à 5 ans de la polychimiothérapie quotidienne de la lèpre en Guadeloupe depuis 1980.

In Guadeloupe, from January 1980 to December 1984, 420 leprosy patients were put under daily multidrug therapy: 10 mg/kg RMP plus 100 mg DDS during six months for paucibacillary patients, 10 mg/kg RMP plus 100 mg DDS during 24 months supplemented during the 12 first months with 10 mg/kg of a thioamide, ethionamide or protionamide, for multibacillary patients. The approval to the treatment was satisfactory in all the patients with active leprosy, new cases and relapse cases, less in the inactive patients already treated with dapsone only. The patients's compliance to treatment was satisfactory too. The lepra reactions were observed with a 19% frequency which is not different of the 15% frequency of lepra reactions observed in patients treated with DDS only. Hepatitis were observed only in multibacillary patients treated with PTH and RMP with a 14% frequency. Discontinuing treatment with RMP and PTH but not DDS resulted in recovery. When RMP was resumed without PTH, the hepatitis did not recur. All patients responded favorably under multidrug therapy and no relapse was observed among the 45 paucibacillary patients after a four year-surveillance and among the 16 multibacillary patients after a three year-surveillance.