La lèpre, une maladie éliminée… ou négligée ?

Leprosy is a chronic infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae, which mainly involves skin and peripheral nerves. In endemic regions, i.e. developing countries of the tropical or subtropical areas, leprosy is the leading cause of neurological disability. After a 10 year eradication campaign, the WHO announced that leprosy had been eliminated “at the global level” on the basis of the prevalence of the disease. This announcement led to a wane of general interest for the disease, although, unexpectedly, the incidence of leprosy has remained stable. At the end of 2005, 220,000 leprosy cases were registered in the world, and 297,000 new cases were notified during the year. The aim of the present review is to put these epidemiologic data into an historical perspective, in order to better understand the dynamics of the disease, and to present a critical summary of the progresses made during the last ten years in fundamental and clinical research on leprosy.