Introduction:

Children having contact with leprosy patients are considered the contacts with greater possibilities of developing the disease.

Objective:

To assess the usefulness of antibodies´ serologic follow up against the phenolic glycolipid I (PGL-1) for the diagnosis of leprosy in children.

Methods:

Prospective study in which were included all children contacts of patients diagnosed with leprosy in Havana, Santiago de Cuba and Guantanamo provinces between January 2013 and June 2015. They were evaluated clinically by the dermato-neurological examination and the presence of antibodies against the PGL-1 of M. leprae was determined. Children with positive serology were followed up using these same two methods every six months for two years. The confirmation of a new case of leprosy was made by smear microscopy and molecular biology / PCR-Rlep.

Results:

A total of 151 children were studied. Of these, 44 children (29.13 %) were positive for phenolic glycolipid I. A total of 12 children were diagnosed during this period, of which 11 had positive serology. Only 10 children of the studied ones presented clinical suspicion and of these only one new case was confirmed, which had negative serology. In eight of the diagnosed children, the presence of acid-fast bacilli was detected in the smear microscopy. In the remaining four children, the diagnosis was confirmed by the PCR result.

Conclusion:

The results of this investigation show the usefulness of the antibodies´ serologic follow up against the phenolic glycolipid I in the diagnosis of leprosy in children as a support to clinical surveillance.

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