This is the first study reporting global data on AMR in leprosy. Rifampicin resistance emerged, stressing the need for expansion of surveillance. This is also a call for vigilance on the global use of antimicrobial agents, because ofloxacin resistance probably developed in relation to the general intake of antibiotics for other infections as it is not part of the multidrug combination used to treat leprosy.

Erythema nodosum leprosum (ENL) is a severe multisystem immune mediated complication of borderline lepromatous leprosy and lepromatous leprosy. ENL is associated with skin lesions, neuritis, arthritis, dactylitis, eye inflammation, osteitis, orchitis, lymphadenitis and nephritis. The treatment of ENL requires immunosuppression, which is often required for prolonged periods of time and may lead to serious adverse effects. ENL and its treatment is associated with increased mortality and economic hardship. Improved, evidence-based treatments for ENL are needed; however, defining the severity of ENL and outcome measures for treatment studies is difficult because of the multiple organ systems involved. A cross-sectional study was performed, by the members of the Erythema Nodosum Leprosum International STudy (ENLIST) Group, of patients with ENL attending seven leprosy referral centres in Brazil, Ethiopia, India, Nepal, the Philippines and the United Kingdom. We systematically documented the clinical features and type of ENL, its severity and the drugs used to treat it. Patients with chronic ENL were more likely to be assessed as having severe ENL. Pain, the most frequent symptom, assessed using a semi-quantitative scale was significantly worse in individuals with “severe” ENL. Our findings will determine the items to be included in a severity scale of ENL which we are developing and validating. The study also provides data on the clinical features of ENL, which can be incorporated into a definition of ENL and used for outcome measures in treatment studies.

Our study has demonstrated a very high point prevalence (62.2%) of skin disease in rural Nepal. This study represents the first formal survey of skin disease in Nepal and demonstrates a large burden of disease, in particular treatable infections.

The immunomodulatory drug thalidomide is the treatment of choice for erythema nodosum leprosum (ENL), an inflammatory cutaneous and systemic complication of multibacillary leprosy. To elucidate the mechanism of action of thalidomide in this syndrome, we prospectively investigated 20 patients with ENL who were treated with thalidomide for 21 days. All patients responded to treatment, with the majority of them having complete resolution of cutaneous lesions within 7 days. This response was associated with a marked but transient increase in ex vivo mitogen-induced expression of interleukin (IL)-2 and interferon- gamma by CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells that was observed on treatment day 7, but these returned to pretreatment levels by day 21. Plasma tumor necrosis factor- alpha levels were not high at baseline, and they increased modestly during treatment. Plasma levels of IL-12 increased steadily during thalidomide treatment. Hence, the therapeutic effect of thalidomide in ENL appears to be associated with transient immune stimulation, which suggests that the drug may promote an active immunoregulatory response.

Background: Skin diseases are very much prevalent in the developing countries. The pattern of skin diseases varies from country to country and even region to region within a country. The histological diagnosis is used by clinicians to aid in the management of patients & most appropriate clinical interventions. Materials and methods: The study included a total of 1040 skin biopsies from January 2016 to December 2018 in the department of pathology, DI skin health and referral centre, Kathmandu, Nepal. Results: The majority of the patients were in the age group of 31-40 years. The most common skin disease is non-infectious vesicobullous and vesicopustular disease (28.6%), followed by non-infectious erythematous papular and squamous disease (25.9%). The most common vesicobullous disease is spongiotic dermatitis (84.8%). Erythema dyschromicum perstans (31.8%) is the commonest non-infectious erythematous papular and squamous disease. The most common microbial disease is fungal infection, followed by leprosy. Among the neoplastic diseases of skin, tumors of epidermis are commonest diseases and the most common epidermal tumor is basal cell carcinoma. The commonest tumor of skin is melanocytic nevus.  The most frequent site is upper extremities. Conclusions: Eczema is predominating non-infectious vesicobullous and vesicopustular disease.  A relatively higher, prevalence of fungal infections was observed. Basal cell carcinoma is the commonest epidermal tumor and melanocytic nevus is commonest of all skin tumors.