Abstract
Leprosy is a chronic infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae. The causative agent is unique in that it cannot be grown in artificial media, till date. The disease is represented by a continuum of varied clinical features with two polar forms, the ‘paucibacillary’ tuberculoid leprosy and ‘multibacillary’ lepromatous leprosy. The clinical features are more or less limited to the skin, peripheral nervous system, upper respiratory tract, eyes, bones and testes. The onset of the disease on the lepromatous pole is subtle, and unless noticed with a keen eye, the diagnosis is generally delayed. The disease is still stigmatized, although most cases respond well to WHO-mandated multidrug therapy. With the lowering of the number of cases, it is imperative that clinicians should observe the indolent disease and keep it in the back of their minds especially in endemic areas.
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Bhardwaj, A., Bandhala Rajan, M. (2022). Skin-Coloured Nodules and Atrophic Scars. In: Pradhan, S., Kumar, P. (eds) Clinical Cases in Leprosy. Clinical Cases in Dermatology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-08220-7_16
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-08220-7_16
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