Cojedes: a leprosy hyperendemic state

Leprosy is a chronic infectious disease produced by Mycobacterium leprae. In 1997 Venezuela reached the goal of elimination of leprosy as a public health problem (according to the World Health Organization a prevalence rate of ≤ 1/10,000 inhabitants), but five states still had prevalence rates over that goal. For this study we selected Cojedes State, where prevalence rates remain over the elimination goal.

Evaluate the real leprosy situation in high-prevalence areas of Cojedes State.

Seven communities of Cojedes State were selected because they had the highest historic prevalence, as well as the highest prevalence in the year to be studied (1997).

A rank correlation using Spearman's test comparing historical prevalence rates (1946-1996) and detection rates (1998-2004) gave a statistically significant P < 0.05 value. Diagnosed leprosy cases were as follows: age: 3.2% under 15 years old; sex: male/female rates between 60% and 91.66% males. The highest number of cases were paucibacillary forms: indeterminate leprosy (33.07%) and borderline tuberculoid leprosy (32.28%); tuberculoid leprosy (7.00%); and multibacillary cases (lepromatous leprosy, LL) were only 2.36%. Bacteriologically, 18.52 patients were M. leprae positive. At the moment of diagnosis, 96.6% showed no disabilities, 3.4% showed grade I disabilities, and there were no grade II or III disabilities.

This study confirms that several communities in Cojedes State have extremely high leprosy rates.