Status of multi bacillary patients "lost to follow up"

Completeness of coverage with MDT is essential if one were to hope for a reduction in the incidence of leprosy in an endemic area. Patients who are lost to follow up are generally declared as "Permanently left" (PL) and deleted from the known case register. A special effort was made to study the true status of multibacillary patients who had been declared "PL" in the leprosy control programme area of the Christian Medical College, Vellore. 38% of the 40 patients followed up were found to be still residing in the same area. 40% of them were BI Positive. The reasons for these erroneous deletions varied. The study shows that declaration of "PL" need to be verified carefully. Further, it was found that the present system of reporting may exaggerate the actual number of patients who have been lost to follow up.