[Survey of leprosy disabilities in patients treated with multiple drug therapy in Ivory Coast]

Between 1990 and 1995, twenty thousand cases of leprosy were treated with WHO recommended multiple drug therapy (MDT) in Ivory Coast. A disability survey was conducted in April 1996 with a half-randomized sample of five hundred patients. This survey showed that 28.73% of the patients had got grade two disabilities in WHO scale. 12.9% of the non disabled patients at detection had developed leprosy impairments during or after treatment. Plantar ulcers (12.2% of the patients) appeared very frequent comparatively to the findings of a similar survey in Burkina Faso in 1995 (0.9% of plantar ulcers). With these results, the authors estimated the needs for disabilities care to enable the reinforcement of the prevention of disabilities and physical rehabilitation (POD and PR) in Ivory Coast.