Incidence of leprosy in Agra district

This study presents estimates of incidence of leprosy among the familial contacts (FC) and non-familial contacts (NFC) of leprosy patients in Agra, a district endemic for leprosy. The study covers 42,113 persons followed up for 123,951.2 person years (PY) during which 77 individuals developed leprosy giving an incidence of 6.2/10,000 PY in the total leprosy-free population studied (TLPS). The incidence rate in NFCs was observed to be 4.6/10,000 PY while the FCs had a significantly higher incidence rate of 67.6/10,000 PY (P < 0.001). Incidence rate among the FC of paucibacillary leprosy (PB) patients was 41.0/10,000 PY while the corresponding figure for multibacillary leprosy (MB) contacts was 131.3/10,000 PY (P < 0.05). Applying methods of survival analysis, the incidence rate at the end of 1 year was observed to be 4-0 (per 10,000), increased to 12.0 by 2 years and 18.0 at the end of 3 years in TLPS. The incidence rate was almost similar in both the sexes and was found to increase significantly with age. The observations clearly indicate that leprosy is still endemic in the area and transmission continues.