Abstract

PALU OROZCO, Adrián et al. Main immunological aspects in families with secondary cases of leprosy in "Frank País García" health area. MEDISAN [online]. 2011, vol.15, n.1, pp. 50-57. ISSN 1029-3019.

A descriptive and cross-sectional study of 32 families with secondary cases of leprosy was carried out (among them prevailed the patients younger than 15 years, as evidence of the active transmission of the disease) and first contacts belonging to "Frank País García" health area in Santiago de Cuba, from January, 2007 to March, 2008, to characterize them according to the immunological and epidemiological elements. The number of eosinophils may be used as a marker to predict the clinical course of the patients and contacts; the neutrophilia, the eosinophilia on the one hand and the leukopenia, lymphocytopenia and disorders in the quality of the lymphocitary clones T, on the other hand, could be considered as effect markers: the former as indicative of response before the Mycobacterium leprae and the latter as expression of the existing immunological damage.

Keywords : leprosy; leprosy immunology; leprosy epidemiology; family; primary health care.

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