Memorandum on leprosy / Department of Health and Social Security and the Welsh Office.

  • Department of Health and Social Security
Date:
[1977]
Catalogue details

Licence: Open Government Licence

Credit: Memorandum on leprosy / Department of Health and Social Security and the Welsh Office. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    classification on the immunological scale. Requests for the supply of Mitsuda type lepromin should be made to the Head, Laboratory for Leprosy and Mycobacterial Research, National Institute for Medical Research, The Ridge- way, Mill Hill, London NW7 IAA, Tel. No. 01-959 3666.) Less common presentations of leprosy include any or a combination of the following : — acute uveitis, erythema nodosum, epistaxis, crusting of the nose, hoarse- ness, loosening of the upper centre incisors, paranoid symptoms, depression, and anxiety. Most cases, however, are usually referred initially for a skin complaint to a consultant dermatologist. Panel of Leprosy Opinion 14. In case of unresolved suspicion, or if desired on other grounds, advice may be sought from a member of a selected group of practitioners with experience of leprosy (Panel of Leprosy Opinion) who will, on request, assist Medical Officers for Environmental Health* and doctors in clinical charge of patients in their problems of diagnosis, potential infectivity, and management of the cases and their close contacts. A list of current members of the panel is given in Appendix I. Amendments to the list are issued from time to time by the Department. Consultant Adviser in Leprosy 15. The Department’s Consultant Adviser in Leprosy, Dr. S. G. Browne, CMG, OBE, (The Leprosy Study Centre, 57a Wimpole Street, London WIM TDF, Tel. No. 01-935 5848) is available on request to visit and advise clinicians having leprosy patients in their care. He is also the Director of the Leprosy Study Centre which has links with leprosy institutes and field workers in many countries. On behalf of the Chief Medical Officer, the Consultant Adviser maintains a record of all cases notified which in many cases is correlated with histo-pathological data. Laboratory investigations 16. Even though the diagnosis may be established on clinical grounds it is always essential to undertake microscopic examination of the nasal dis- charge and of smears from the active edge of a skin lesion or of material obtained by skin biopsy. The presence of acid-alcohol-fast bacilli in such material will not only confirm the diagnosis in clinically doubtful cases, but will also indicate that the patient is in a potentially infective state. The *Medical Officer for Environmental Health (MOEH) is the short title of the “Proper Officer” appointed by a Local Authority for functions relating to notifiable disease and food poisoning, and as their medical adviser on environmental health. Where appro- priate he also has responsibilities to a Sea Port Health Authority or to the local authority with responsibility for port health contro] at an airport.