§ Sir R. Russellasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will make a statement about the average of 50 persons a year who are reported as having leprosy in the United Kingdom; where they are treated; how many are cured; and what information is available about the origin of the disease in individual cases.
§ Mr. EnnalsThe majority of persons suffering from leprosy in England and Wales are being treated as hospital outpatients or by their family doctors. The small number who need hospital inpatient care are treated in hospitals for tropical diseases, or, occasionally, in general hospitals. Effective treatment by drugs is available, but has to be given for a minimum of two years and sometimes much longer.
By the end of 1967, 196 patients were reported to have been cured out of a total of 732 notified since 1951. Of the 357 patients remaininig on the register at the end of 1967, 196 were known to be quiescent but treatment was continuing as a precaution against recurrence.
Particulars required to be notified under the Infectious Diseases Regulations do not provide information about the country of origin of the patient. There is no evidence to suggest that any person on the register of notified cases has contracted the disease in the United Kingdom.