Mmunological Trends in Leprosy

Abstract

The long incubation period in leprosy, variable manifestations of disease viz. lepromatous, tuberculoid, indeterminate etc. strongly, indicate the possible role of immune mechanism, particularly so, when M. leprae has low infectivity. Immune mechanism may possibly be affected by nutritional, genetic, hortnon2il and biochemical factors. Chakravarty and Vogal (1973) have examined large number of identical and non-identical twins in endemic areas. They find high incidence of leprosy in monozygotes than in dizygotes twins. In malnutrition, immunity responses are impaired, so also in lepromatous leprosy. Whether malnutrition which is so often present in leprosy patients, aggravate the disease course is a hypothesis. Appearance of lazarine leprosy in persons with malnutrition and hypoproteinaemia is known.