Rifampicin-resistant Mycobacterium leprae in an elderly leprosy patient in the People's Republic of China

Abstract

Meiwen Yu,1,* Kan Wu,1,* Bing Pei,2 Degang Yang,2 Qiulin Wang,1 Hongsheng Wang,1 Jianping Shen,1 Liangbing Yan,1 Guochen Zhang1 1Institute of Dermatology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, National Center for STD and Leprosy Control, China CDC, Nanjing, People's Republic of China; 2Department of Infectious Diseases, Shanghai Skin Disease Hospital, Shanghai, People's Republic of China *These authors contributed equally to this work Abstract: The reported number of registered leprosy patients worldwide declined with the introduction of multidrug therapy. However, the emergence of rifampicin resistance in leprosy patients engenders difficulties for an individual patient, and its dissemination could pose a threat to leprosy control. This study reports an elderly patient who was diagnosed with rifampicin-resistant lepromatous leprosy. This case indicates that inadequate treatment and poor compliance may eventually result in rifampicin resistance in Mycobacterium leprae and clinical relapse. Keywords: leprosy, rifampicin, drug resistance, elderly patient

Keywords

• leprosy
• rifampcin
• drug resistance
• older patient