Dapsone resistant leprosy, the western Kenya experience

41 patients out of 804 registered lepromatous (LL) and borderline lepromatous (BL) patients were studied for possible dapsone resistance by series of biopsy specimens, skin smears and clinical examination. These patients were drawn from a pool of 4384 registered leprosy patients in the west Kenya Leprosy Control Project area. Six out of fourty one cases (14.6%) were confirmed as dapsone resistant by series of biopsy specimens taken when patients were on supervised dapsone therapy; 11 patients (26.8%) were suspected to be resistant and 24 patients (58.6%) responded well to dapsone therapy. All the confirmed cases were lepromatous leprosy cases. We therefore found that there is dapsone resistance here with a maximal prevalence rate of 7 per 1000 in all lepromatous cases and 14.6% in clinically suspicious cases.