Drug resistance in leprosy: lessons from past and future perspective

Some recent studies indicate that the problem of drug resistance in leprosy is very much there but the exact picture is not clear. In the emerging scenario with increasing number of new cases with low bacterial load, the conventional in-vivo and most of current in-vitro methods for determination of drug resistance may not help. It is pointed out that newer molecular approaches may be more useful and that it will be important to undertake studies to develop such tools.