A New Step in Postexposure Prophylaxis for Leprosy

Infection with Mycobacterium leprae is curable with a combination of dapsone, rifampin, and clofazimine (multidrug therapy), as recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1982. The use of this multidrug regimen led to an initial rapid decline in the global prevalence of M. leprae infection, a reduction that was bolstered by the removal of many previously cured patients from national registries. Encouraged, the WHO coordinated a global effort from 1990 to 2000 to eliminate leprosy as a public health problem through the use of multidrug therapy on the premise that curing new cases would interrupt transmission. Initially, this program . . .