Leprosy burden in Europe: data from Austria and Germany

 

Leprosy Mailing List – October 21st, 2012

Ref.:    Leprosy burden in Europe: data from Austria and Germany (see attachments)
From:  C Massone, Graz, Austria

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Dear Andrea,

Thank you for your proposal [LML October 14th, 2012].  We are happy that you proceed with this important and interesting project as conceived by us and Salvatore some time ago.  Regarding Italy, data have been recently published (see attachment) and are available by the "Società Italiana di Hansenologia" (SIHAN) as you well know.

Regarding Austria, since 1960 only 5 leprosy cases have been registered:
- 2 cases in 1975 (no more data available)
- 1 case in 1990 (no more data available)
- 2 cases have been observed in the last 10 years one in 2005 (immigrant from Africa) and one in 2010 (Austrian man infected in Brazil; this case has been recently published)

See in attachment the pdf files of the official data and publication.  Data are available at: http://www.statistik.at/web_de/statistiken/gesundheit/gesundheitszustand/uebertragbare_krankheiten/index.html
Leprosy requires official notification in Austria and Germany.

Concerning Germany, I found some official data available at the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) at http://www.rki.de/DE/Content/InfAZ/L/Lepra/Lepra.html From the attached files (RKI official bulletin), data are the following:
-  no more autochthonous cases since many years
- 2010: 2 cases in immigrants from Asia (no more data)
- 2009: 1 LL case in a 39-y Pakistan man
- 2003: 4 cases: 1 LL in 52-y Turkish woman, 1 LL in a 45y- man from Pakistan, 1 paucibacillary in 29-y woman from Philippines, 1 woman from Thailand

 Of course, data from Germany should be commented and integrated by a German colleague.

 Yours sincerely,

Cesare Massone, MD
Associate Professor
Department of Dermatology
Medical University of Graz
Auenbruggerplatz 8, A-8036
Graz (Austria)
Phone: 0043-316-385-80308
Fax: 0043-316-385-14957 (12466)
2012/10/14 Massone Cesare, Priv.Doz.Dr., OA <Cesare.Massone@klinikum-graz.at>

 

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LML - S Deepak, B Naafs, S Noto, P A M Schreuder
LML Archives: http://www.aifo.it/english/resources/online/lml-archives/index.htm
Dr Salvatore Noto
Padiglione Dermatologia Sociale
Ospedale San Martino
Largo R. Benzi, 10
16132 Genoa, Italy
Tel: (+39) 010 555 27 83 - Fax: (+39) 010 555 66 41 - E-mail: salvatore.noto@hsanmartino.it