According to the Regulation of the Minister of Health Number 11 of 2019 concerning the Mitigation of Leprosy, preventive medication or chemoprophylaxis is administered to people who: have stayed in a region containing leprosy patients for at least 3 (three) consecutive months, are neither suspected of leprosy nor leprosy patients, are at least 2 (two) years of age, have not been given rifampicin therapy within the past 2 (two) years, and are not a suspect of tuberculosis, in order to reduce the risk of leprosy infection.
Separately, dr. Dina Sari Dewi, Sp.KK, FINSDV, FAADV, admitted in the “Mitigate and Eliminate Leprosy” live IG session on Tuesday (31/01/2023) that erroneous beliefs and myths concerning leprosy continue to proliferate in society: “For example, leprosy is claimed to be a sickness caused by a curse against the sufferer, or because the sufferer has sinned, and will cause your fingers and toes to drop off. This is not true, as there have been cases of the holiest, most pious priests and nuns, and the kindliest medical workers, who died because of contracting leprosy from the people they have tended for months or years. Furthermore, leprosy patients frequently become unaware of disability in their arms, legs, and eyes, because their peripheral nerves are inflamed, which numb them to the pain they should have felt. The doctor will check by performing anamnesis and scraping the skin all the way to the dermis layer. Treatment is administered according to the type of leprosy suffered, i.e. paucibacillary for ‘dry’ leprosy, and multibacillary for ‘wet’ leprosy. The PB treatment uses two types of medicine for 9 months at most, while MB requires that the patient takes three types of medicine and a full course of therapy for 12-18 months.”
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The scariest thing about leprosy is that it is a crippling disease. “This is the source of the stigma that leprosy is a curse, whether witchcraft or divine, even though patients can be cured, if the disease is caught early and they take medication regularly. Improve your immunity to keep from being infected, and perform self-detection if you feel the initial symptoms – numbness, white spots on your skin, and lesions and bumps that do not disappear by themselves for weeks,” dr. Dina said. (est)