Leprosy secondary prevention
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Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]; Associate Editor(s)-in-Chief: João André Alves Silva, M.D. [2]
Overview
It is not possible to know if a contact with a patient with leprosy will lead to the development of leprosy until first symptoms appear, hence no secondary prevention is available.
Secondary Prevention
Attending to the long and variable period of time, between the first contact with the mycobacteria and when symptoms start to develop, it is not possible to determine if a person has been infected by a contact with a patient who has the active form of the disease, nor a specific time for the first symptoms to appear. The prevention of being infected by the bacillus, will then have to be focused on the primary prevention, with measures such as avoidance of contact with patients with the active form of the disease, as well as tertiary prevention, with measures such as education of the populations on how to deal with their lesions and to identify early signs that should prompt them to seek medical attention.