W Cairns S Smith, Alison Anderson, Stephen G Withington, Wim H. van Brakel et al.
OBJECTIVE: To determine whether addition of low dose prednisolone to multidrug treatment can prevent reaction and nerve function impairment in leprosy. DESIGN: Multicentre, double blind, randomised, placebo controlled, parallel group trial. SETTING: Six centres in Bangladesh and Nepal. PARTICIPANTS:...
RICHARD P. CROFT, Jan Hendrik Richardus, Peter Nicholls, W. Cairns S. Smith
The Bangladesh Acute Nerve Damage Study (BANDS) is a prospective cohort study designed to investigate epidemiological, diagnostic, therapeutic and operational aspects of acute nerve function impairment in leprosy. The study is based at a single centre in Bangladesh, in an area with a high prevalence...
Mary Cameron, Álvaro Acosta-Serrano, Caryn Bern, Marleen Boelaert et al.
Visceral Leishmaniasis (VL) is a neglected vector-borne disease. In India, it is transmitted to humans by Leishmania donovani-infected Phlebotomus argentipes sand flies. In 2005, VL was targeted for elimination by the governments of India, Nepal and Bangladesh by 2015. The elimination strategy consi...
Jan Hendrik Richardus, Karen Finlay, RICHARD P. CROFT, W. C. Smith
This retrospective cohort study includes all new leprosy patients registered for multidrug therapy (MDT) in 1990 at the Danish-Bangladesh Leprosy Mission project in Bangladesh. The main objective was to determine the extent of nerve-function impairment (NFI) at diagnosis and at completion of MDT, an...
RICHARD P. CROFT, ROSEMARY A. CROFT
A small survey was carried out in two areas of northern Bangladesh to assess and compare the level of knowledge, attitude and practice towards leprosy and tuberculosis (TB) among two communities that differed widely in the amount of health education received about these diseases. The results indicat...
P. G. Nicholls, RICHARD P. CROFT, Jan Hendrik Richardus, S G Withington et al.
The objective of our research was to relate delay in presentation in the Bangladesh Acute Nerve Damage Study cohort to intake status and to treatment outcome. The Bangladesh Acute Nerve Damage Study (BANDS) is a prospective cohort study of 2664 consecutive newly registered patients at clinics run by...
Aki Hietaharju, Richard Croft, Rezaul Alam, Paul Birch et al.
The existence of chronic neuropathic pain in treated leprosy has received scant attention. We describe the clinical findings of 16 patients with multibacillary leprosy who had chronic stimulus-independent pain despite finishing their treatment. With confirmation, our results could be of importance i...
A. M. Anderson, RICHARD P. CROFT
The reliability of methods of testing nerve function is important, since diagnostic decision making is a direct function of the quality of the test. Three methods of nerve function testing were investigated at the Danish Bangladesh Leprosy Mission (DBLM) in north Bangladesh, and assessed for inter-o...
Jan Hendrik Richardus, Stephen G Withington, Alison Anderson, RICHARD P. CROFT et al.
Some leprosy patients with long-standing nerve function impairment (NFI) appear to have responded favourably to treatment with corticosteroids. This study investigated whether patients with untreated NFI between 6 and 24 months duration and who are given standard regimen corticosteroid therapy, will...
RICHARD P. CROFT, Peter Nicholls, Jan Hendrik Richardus, W. Cairns S. Smith
In this paper, the outcome of 132 patients having acute nerve function impairment (NFI) is reported at 4 and 12 months after the start of prednisolone treatment. In all, 68% of sensory nerves and 67% of motor nerves showed improvement at 12 months, with no statistical difference in responsiveness of...
Wim H. van Brakel, Alison Anderson, Stephen G Withington, RICHARD P. CROFT et al.
This study was designed to investigate whether leprosy patients diagnosed with mild sensory impairment have a better prognosis when treated with steroids than similarly impaired patients treated with placebo. A multi-centre, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial was conducted in Nepal a...
Jan Hendrik Richardus, Abraham Meima, van Marrewijk Cj, Croft Rp et al.
BACKGROUND: As part of a larger study of the role of close contacts in the transmission of M. leprae, we explored whether the proportion of newly detected cases with a family history of leprosy differs with different incidence rates of leprosy in a population. METHODS: Retrospective analysis was per...
RICHARD P. CROFT, Peter Nicholls, JAN H. RICHARUS, W. Cairns S. Smith
In this paper, the incidence rates and cumulative incidence of nerve function impairment (NFI) and leprosy reactions over 24 months follow-up of the prospective cohort of 2664 new leprosy cases are presented. Graphs showing the cumulative incidence of NFI relative to time since registration are pres...
Jan Hendrik Richardus, Stephen G Withington, Alison Anderson, RICHARD P. CROFT et al.
Reactions in leprosy causing nerve function impairment (NFI) are increasingly treated with standardized regimens of corticosteroids, often under field conditions. Safety concerns led to an assessment of adverse events of corticosteroids, based on data of three trials studying prevention of NFI (the ...
Jan Hendrik Richardus, Abraham Meima, RICHARD P. CROFT, J. Dik F. Habbema
A trend analysis is presented of all newly detected leprosy cases over an 18-year period (1979-1996) in a highly leprosy endemic area of Bangladesh. A total of 23,678 new cases were registered, with an average of 860 new cases per year in the first 12 years, and increasing to around 3000 in 1996. Th...
Richard Croft, RICHARD P. CROFT
This small study undertook to assess the economic consequences of developing tuberculosis (TB) among patients presenting to the TB clinic run by the Danish Bangladesh Leprosy Mission in NW Bangladesh. The loss of income resulting from the illness, and the actual expenditure incurred by medicines and...
RICHARD P. CROFT, Peter Nicholls, Ewout W. Steyerberg, Jan Hendrik Richardus et al.
Nerve function impairment (NFI) commonly occurs during or after chemotherapy in leprosy. We previously described a clinical prediction rule to estimate the risk of NFI occurring within 2 years of diagnosis, based on 2510 patients who are followed up in the Bangladesh Acute Nerve Damage Study (BANDS)...
RICHARD P. CROFT, William C. Smith, Peter Nicholls, Jan Hendrik Richardus
A 12-month cohort of 2664 new leprosy cases in Bangladesh has been analyzed to provide information about the sensitivity and specificity of two different methods of classifying leprosy into paucibacillary (PB) and multibacillary (MB), if the results of skin-smear examination are not taken into accou...
RICHARD P. CROFT, Jan Hendrik Richardus, W. C. Smith
In this study, a fixed regimen of prednisolone for the treatment of acute nerve function impairment (NFI) in leprosy patients was developed and introduced at field level in one area (Thakurgaon) of the Danish-Bangladesh Leprosy Mission's field in NW Bangladesh. The assessment, management and follow-...
Jan Hendrik Richardus, RICHARD P. CROFT
Assessing the size of the leprosy problem in a country is an important but difficult issue for the purpose of programme planning. Different methods have been proposed but often estimates have proved to be very different from reality. We have attempted to address this issue in Bangladesh, a country w...