Authors: Bang Nguyen Pham, Jackson Appo, Guise Gende, Chalapati Rao, Anthony D. Okely, William Pomat.
Background: The re-emergence of leprosy has been recently reported in Papua New Guinea, raising a public health concern about the neglect of this endemic infectious disease in the health and epidemiological transition of the country.
Method: We describe a rare case of leprosy-tuberculosis co-infection using the patient history and medical records extracted from the Comprehensive Health and Epidemiological Surveillance System, operated by Papua New Guinea Institute of Medical Research.
Result: A 25-years old male patient with co-infection of multi-bacillary leprosy and tuberculous lymphadenitis was reported for the first time in literature in Goroka, Eastern Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea. The review identifies key challenges in drug treatment regimens, tracing contacts and patient follow-up as major concerns, which can increase the risks of incomplete treatment, transmission of the diseases in the community.
Conclusion: Our case study reports a rare patient with co-infections of primary Multi-Bacillary Leprosy plus TB Lymphadenitis in PNG. Throughout the process of diagnosis, treatment and follow-up with the patient, we highlight the key challenges in the implementation of the national leprosy elimination programme at the local level. Understanding of these challenges would help to design effective interventions to improve the performance of national leprosy control programme.
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