Leprosy in the Colombian island of Providencia

Jairo Fuentes, MD, Juliana Jiménez, Gustavo Urueta, Santiago Fadul, Esperanza Meléndez, Martha Inírida Guerrero, Gerzaín Rodríguez, .

Keywords: Leprosy, multibacillary, leprosy/transmission, disease transmission, infectious, polymerase chain reaction

Abstract

San Andrés and Providencia are Colombian islands in the Caribbean Sea. San Andrés has 68,283 inhabitants and has registered cases of leprosy in immigrants from continental Colombia. Providencia has 5,037 inhabitants and historically health programs did not have records of the disease, but in 2009 two cases of multibacillary histoid leprosy were confirmed and, subsequently, another two, which represents a prevalence of 8 cases per 10,000 inhabitants and places the island as a hyperendemic site for leprosy. Initially, a 14-year-old girl with histoid leprosy was diagnosed and, exploring this case, her father was diagnosed with the same clinical form of leprosy. Recently, a new intrafamilial patient with multibacillary leprosy and an extrafamilial case of a girl with undetermined leprosy were detected.
The objective of this study was to present to the scientific community and the public health officers these clinical cases and to draw the attention of the sanitary authorities on the necessity of establishing continuous programs of leprosy epidemiological surveillance on the island using the new tools available in the Programa de Control de la Lepra (Leprosy Control Program).

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.
  • Jairo Fuentes, MD Servicio de Dermatología, Hospital Universidad del Norte, Departamento Administrativo de Salud del Distrito de Barranquilla, Colombia
  • Juliana Jiménez Servicio de Dermatología, Hospital Militar Central, Bogotá, D.C., Colombia
  • Gustavo Urueta Secretaría Departamental de Salud, Archipiélago de San Andrés, Providencia y Santa Catalina, Colombia
  • Santiago Fadul Grupo de Epidemiología Aplicada, Instituto Nacional de Salud, Bogotá, D.C., Colombia
  • Esperanza Meléndez Servicio de Dermatología, Hospital Universidad del Norte, Departamento Administrativo de Salud del Atlántico, Barranquilla, Colombia
  • Martha Inírida Guerrero Oficina de Docencia e Investigación, Hospital Universitario Centro Dermatológico Federico Lleras Acosta, Bogotá, D.C., Colombia
  • Gerzaín Rodríguez Oficina de Docencia e Investigación, Hospital Universitario Centro Dermatológico Federico Lleras Acosta, Bogotá, D.C., Colombia; Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de la Sabana, Chía, Colombia

References

Instituto Nacional de Salud. Boletín Epidemiológico Semanal, número 52 de 2016. Fecha de consulta: 10 de octubre de 2018. Disponible en: http://www.ins.gov.co/buscadoreventos/BoletinEpidemiologico/2016%20Bolet%C3%ADn%20epidemiol%C3%B3gico%20semana%2052%20-.pdf

Rodríguez G, Pinto R. La lepra. Imágenes y conceptos. Medellín: Universidad de Antioquia, Universidad de La Sabana; 2007.

Moet FJ, Pahan D, Schuring RP, Oskam L, Richardus JH. Physical distance, genetic relationship, age, and leprosy classification are independent risk factors for leprosy in contact of patients with leprosy. J Infect Dis. 2006;193:346-53. https://doi.org/10.1086/499278

Job CK, Jayakumar J, Kearney M, Gillis TP. Transmission of leprosy: A study of skin and nasal secretions of household’s contacts of leprosy patients using PCR. Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2008;78:518-21.

Smith WCS, Smith CM, Cree IA, Jadhaw RS, Mac Donald M, Edgard VK, et al. An approach to understanding the transmission of Mycobacterium leprae using molecular and immunologic methods: Results from de MILEP2 study. Int J Lepr Other Mycobact Dis. 2004;72:269-77.

Richardus JH, Pahan D, Johnson RC, Smith WC. Leprosy control. In: Scollard DM, Gillis TP, editors. The International Texbook of Leprosy. Athens: Papyros Designs; 2016. Fecha de consulta: 11 de octubre de 2018. Disponible en: https://internationaltextbookofleprosy.org/chapter/leprosy-control

Bray GW. The story of leprosy at Nauru. Proc R Soc Med. 1930;23:1370-4.

Grant A. Leprosy at Nauru since 1928. Int J Lepr Other Mycobact Dis. 1934;2:305-10.

Guerrero MI, Arias MT, Garcés MT, León CI. Desarrollo y aplicación de una prueba de RCP para detectar la infección subclínica por Mycobacterium leprae. Rev Panam Salud Pública. 2002;11:228-34.

Penna ML, Penna GO, Iglesias PC, Natal S, Rodrigues LC. Anti-PGL-1 positivity as a risk marker for the development of leprosy among contacts of leprosy cases: Systematic review and meta-analysis. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2016;10:e0004703. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0004703

Scollard DM. The biology of nerve injury in leprosy. Lepr Rev. 2008;79:242-53.

Departamento Administrativo Nacional de Estadística. Demografía regiones Colombia, 2005. Fecha de consulta: 10 de octubre de 2018. Disponible en: http://www.dane.gov.co/files/investigaciones/poblacion/proyepobla06_20/7Proyecciones_poblacion.pdf

Organización Mundial de la Salud. Estrategia mundial para la eliminación de la lepra 2016-2020. Fecha de consulta: 11 de noviembre de 2018. Disponible en: http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/208824/9/9789290225195-SPA.pdf?ua=1&ua=1

Guerrero MI. Vigilancia epidemiológica de lepra aplicable a sitios de baja prevalencia: una necesidad vigente. Infectio. 2017;21:7-8. https://doi.org/10.22354/in.v21i1.634

Rodríguez G, Henríquez, R, Gallo S, Panqueva C. Histoid leprosy with giant lesions of fingers and toes. Biomédica .2015;35:165-70. https://doi.org/10.7705/biomedica.v35i2.2562

Franco-Paredes C, Rodríguez-Morales AJ. Unsolved matters in leprosy: A descriptive review and call for further research. Ann Clin Microbiol Antimicrob. 2016;15:33. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12941-016-0149-x

How to Cite
1.
Fuentes J, Jiménez J, Urueta G, Fadul S, Meléndez E, Guerrero MI, et al. Leprosy in the Colombian island of Providencia. biomedica [Internet]. 2020 May 1 [cited 2024 May 20];40(Supl. 1):26-31. Available from: https://revistabiomedica.org/index.php/biomedica/article/view/4974

Some similar items:

Published
2020-05-01

Altmetric

Article metrics
Abstract views
Galley vies
PDF Views
HTML views
Other views
QR Code