Mass screening in leprosy endemic areas of Turkey: Preliminary report

Abstract

A multipurpose programme was devised to enable a research team of university personnel to cooperate with local health units with the following objects: 1, to find registered leprosy patients in selected areas and provide them with curative and rehabilitative services; 2, to locate people known to have been in close contact with registered patients and keep them under surveillance: 3, to screen the whole population in selected areas in order to find new cases; 4, to undertake periodic examination of suspected cases; and 5, to provide on-the-spot training for health personnel in the control of leprosy. Because of a known high prevalence, the province of Van, situated in the eastern part of Turkey, on the Iranian border, was chosen, and in the first year of this project, two regions of this province were covered, with the examination of over 15,000 people. This report describes the methodology and preliminary findings and discusses some of the difficulties in the interpretation of results with regard to the total population coverage achieved by such a screening programme in 1984, and the previously recorded, official census figures. It is planned to continue and expand this research and to analyse results in a future publication.