A study of knowledge and attitude regarding leprosy among undergraduates and interns of a medical college and hospital

• Author Details:   
• Trishna Vaishali ^*
• Sheron Christin Armel
• Shanaz Jemima Raffi

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Background: Leprosy is an infectious disease, caused by Mycobacterium leprae. The clinical spectrum of the disease varies from mild to severe cutaneous forms with extensive nerve and systemic involvement. India has the largest number of leprosy cases in the world. Since 1985, there has been a fall in the prevalence of leprosy, and successful treatment has been given to 14.5 million patients with multidrug therapy (WHO 2006). An early recognition and prompt therapeutic intervention is necessary to halt the progress of the disease. The magnitude of stigma associated with leprosy is quite high. Therefore, sufficient knowledge of leprosy is required among future medical graduates of the society.

Aim: To study the knowledge and attitude regarding leprosy patients among undergraduates and interns of a medical college and hospital.

Methods and Materials: It is a descriptive cross- sectional study which was conducted between the period of August to November 2024, at a medical college and hospital in Pondicherry. The sample size was calculated as 323. The study was approved by ethics committee (IEC approval number was RC/2023/146).After obtaining consent for participation in the study, the study participants comprising the undergraduates (third and fourth year) and interns, were requested to fill in a pre-designed and pre-structured questionnaire. The questionnaire was in English and it contained 40 questions. The questionnaire was structured based on the questionnaire by Ahmed et al, S Gopalakrishnan et al. Statistical analysis was done with SPSS.

Results: The study included 153 (47.3%) male participants, 170 (52.6%) female participants of whom 73(22.6%) were interns and 250 (77.3%) identified as undergraduates. The finding revealed that 96.6% of the participants recognized the causative agent of leprosy, while only 78.9 % understood the mode of transmission. Additionally, 72.5% could identify the cardinal signs of leprosy and 85.8% were informed about the drugs in multidrug therapy (MDT). However, awareness regarding the duration of treatment was lower, with only 58.2% recognizing the length of pauci-bacillary and 52.6 % for multi-bacillary therapy. In terms of attitude towards leprosy, 46.8 % believed that individuals with leprosy should not marry, while 76.5 % were open to sharing a workspace with leprosy patients. Furthermore, 43.3% felt that MDT should be discontinued during pregnancy and 60% considered leprosy to be a highly infectious disease. Notably, 62.23% were unaware of any available leprosy vaccine, and 40% believed that all leprosy patients ultimately experienced deformities.

Conclusion: As undergraduates and interns are young doctors encountering patients in the community and in initial screening, timely recognition and appropriate knowledge can make a huge difference in reducing the burden of leprosy. The study shows the need for knowledge on symptoms over which the students should suspect leprosy in a patient and also the lack of knowledge over proper management and duration of management. This demands us to improvise methods of education on leprosy and conduct more innovative and interesting campaigns for better understanding and remembering of Hansen’s disease.