The objective of this LML Distance Learning Guide is to make a concise and practical guide on how to diagnose leprosy available. The course is not a substitute for WHO technical guides, ILEP teaching guides, national manuals and guidelines, textbooks or other important learning tools and materials. Nor can any guide or manual replace practical teaching, learning through collaboration with patients and follow-up of the patients’ treatment. The reader is referred to text books and other publications to complete the study of this subject. Many of the concepts reported in the written text are from authors listed in the section Sources and References.
This brief course “Diagnosis of Leprosy” is made up of a written text and a set of slides in PDF format. The slides are zipped in order to facilitate transmission via e-mail.
Additionally, clinical images can be requested from S. Noto when needed for training purposes and Word/PowerPoint files will be available for downloading from the LML webpage.
The text and related slides have been divided into three parts (“Introduction”, “Cardinal signs” and “Diagnosis and the clinical spectrum of leprosy”) and will be circulated via the leprosy mailing list. All comments and contributions will be accepted and hopefully included in further editions of the course.
We are very grateful to Bernard Naafs and Enrico Nunzi for their revision of the course and their, including also José Augusto da Costa Nery, Antonio Salafia and Grace Warren, willingness to make their slides available, Andrea Clapasson for revising the laboratory section and Anne Chadwick for revising the English.
Genoa and Maastricht, April 2010