Assuntos
Amoxicilina/uso terapêutico , Anti-Infecciosos/uso terapêutico , Clofazimina/uso terapêutico , Hanseníase Virchowiana/microbiologia , Hanseníase Virchowiana/patologia , Hanseníase Virchowiana/tratamento farmacológico , Mycobacterium leprae , Mycobacterium leprae/isolamento & purificação , Ofloxacino/uso terapêutico , Pele , Pele/patologia , Quimioterapia Combinada , Resultado do Tratamento , Ácidos Clavulânicos/uso terapêuticoRESUMO
At a time when primary dapsone resistance was prevalent in many leprosy endemic areas, Cebu in The Philippines reported only 3.6% in the period 1975-1978 and later 8.1% in the period 1979-1982. In our current study of patients in the period 1988-1992, the number increased dramatically to 52.7%. In addition, 7.9% of the isolates are highly resistant to dapsone, a level of resistance not seen in earlier studies. This finding could have severe ramifications to the World Health Organization's multidrug therapy (WHO-MDT) mode of treatment, where dapsone is one of the principal drugs. Moreover, the increase in primary dapsone resistance may be a contributing factor in the recent finding that there has been no decline in the number of new cases found in Cebu, even after the implementation of WHO-MDT in 1985. There is a need for new drugs that could be included in the multidrug treatment for multibacillary and paucibacillary leprosy.