Loknath Ghoshal

A Clinico-Epidemiological Study of Leprosy in an Urban Leprosy Centre of West Bengal

A Clinico epidemiological study of 208 patients of leprosy who sought medical advice at the Leprosy OPD of School of Tropical Medicine, Kolkata, during January 2016 – April 2016 is reported. Among all the cases, 94.2% were new cases, 3.8% were defaulters and 1.9% were having a relapse after completion of treatment. Around 59% of them had borderline tuberculoid type. An important finding was that prevalence of BL & LL cases before the age of 50 years is about 15.8% but beyond this age the prevalence rises to 47.6%. Depending on slit skin smear report 146 (70.2%) cases were multibacillary leprosy. The disease was found 2.3 times more often in males than in females and was found mainly in the age group 11-70 years. Lepra reactions were seen in 17 (8.17%) cases, of which 10 had type 1 reaction (58.8%) and 7 type 2 reaction (41.2%). Another significant finding was the occurrence of lepra reactions (both type I & II) in multibacillary type of leprosy (n=14) than in paucibacillary type. Among the 146 patients with multibacillary disease 42 (28.76%) developed deformity and most (80.95%) would have more severe and permanent deformities.

Cutaneous leishmaniasis: an unusual cause of nasal obstruction

Nasal and sinus-related illnesses are among the most common reasons for appointments to otolaryngologists and allergists. The usual causes include septal deviation, allergic rhinitis, polyps and so on. Apart from the common cold, allergic rhinitis is probably the most common cause of nasal obstruction. Allergic rhinitis is most common during adolescence and improves significantly during middle age and wanes during old age. The anatomical causes including septal deviation and adenoids constitute other common causes of nasal obstruction. The unusual causes include middle turbinate osteoma, concha bullosa of the inferior turbinate, congenital nasal pyriform aperture stenosis, and congenital inferior turbinate hypertrophy. We describe the case of a 44-year-old man with localized cutaneous leishmaniasis, a hitherto unobserved cause of nasal obstruction, cured with intravenous sodium stibogluconate.