Is bacteriological examination by skin smear necessary in all paucibacillary leprosy patients in mass control programmes

Skin smear bacteriological examination results of 1 1 ,255 paucibaci l l­ ary leprosy patients from 8 leprosy control units under the National Leprosy Eradication Programme (NLEP) in South India and the Outpatient Department (OPD) of the Central Leprosy Teaching & Research Institute (CL T &RI) , Chengalpattu, between 1 987 and 1 989 were collected and analysed . Only 0 ·05% of the smears from leprosy control units and 2·49% from the OPO of CLT&RI were found to be positive . Not a single smear from indeterminate, tuberculoid and pure neuritic types of leprosy out of 8263 examined was found positive under field conditions. The relevance of carrying out routine bacteriological examination in mass leprosy control programmes is discussed.