Ocular complications of leprosy in Cameroon

Abstract

ABSTRACT.Purpose: This study aimed to identify the main ocular complications of leprosy in Cameroon. Patients and Methods: It is a prospective cross-sectional study which took place from July 1998 to January 1999 in five leprosaria in Cameroon. The ophthalmological examination of all patients was performed by the same team. Results: Of the 218 patients examined, 60.1% were males and 39.9% females. 72.5% had a paucibacillary leprosy and 27.5% a multibacillary form. 77.5% of patients had at least one ocular lesion and 38.3% of eyes had visual acuity AE1/ 10. Madarosis and anterior uveitis were more frequent in multibacillary forms while lagophthalmos and cataract were so in paucibacillary forms. Conclusion: Ocular complications are frequent in leprosy in Cameroonians. It is a true public health problem and it is important to prevent these lesions by early diagnosis and adequate treatment.

Ocular Complications of Leprosy in Yemen = مضاعفات العين عند المصابين بالجذام في اليمن

“…[12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30] Out of these blind eyes, 37 patients (19%) were completely disabled due to binocular blindness.…”

“…1,29 Cataracts ranked as the second most common cause of blindness (31.3%) in this study, while it was the most common cause in Nigeria (46%) and South Korea (87%). [23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32] In Nepal, uveitis with secondary glaucoma was a primary cause of blindness in the past but with increased knowledge of the disease and its complications, and the introduction of new treatments, these causes have declined dramatically. 20 In contrast, in the current study, uveitis was found to be the third most common blinding condition (23.4%).…”

Prevention of blindness in leprosy and the role of the Vision 2020 Programme

“…Four recent larger studies on elderly patients with long histories of leprosy, mostly living in leprosy settlements, all indicate that blindness in such patients is much higher, even today. [5][6][7][8] If blindness among the general population above 50 years in developing countries is roughly taken as 5% (VAo0.1), these data show that blindness among leprosy patients is at least 50% higher in a country like S Korea, with welldeveloped health services, free for leprosy patients, and two to three times higher in leprosy settlements in Nigeria and China. In China alone, there may be as many as 40 000 blind, among the approximately 300 000 currently living patients who have suffered from leprosy.…”

Análise das principais manifestações oculares de pacientes hansenianos nas regiões Norte e Sudeste do Brasil

“…Disseminou-se pela Europa durante as cruzadas na Idade Média e desde àquela época, até os dias atuais, os indivíduos acometidos pela enfermidade são freqüentemente isolados, excluídos e abandonados por suas famílias e pela sociedade (1)(2)(3) .…”

“…Atualmente é considerada como um problema de saúde pública apresentando-se de forma endêmica nas áreas tropicais e subtropicais do planeta, estando o Brasil incluído nesta realidade (3)(4)(5) . A doença atingiu a Amazônia brasileira pelo estado do Pará, no início do século XIX, e o restante do país com a intensa imigração para os diversos estados, incluindo as regiões Sul e Sudeste (6)(7) .…”