Delayed diagnosis of leprosy in a Kuwaiti child

ABSTRACT

Leprosy is a chronic infectious disease affecting primarily the skin, peripheral nerves, and some visceral tissues. The skin lesions take the form of macules, papules, plaques, nodules and diffuse infiltration. If hypo-pigmented macules are the only manifestation of leprosy in patients living in non-endemic areas, they may be misdiagnosed as other more common skin diseases. We report the case of an 8-year-old Kuwaiti boy who presented with hypo-pigmented macules for the last four years. He was given various diagnoses until neurologic manifestations set in. That was when the diagnosis of leprosy was suspected and confirmed by biopsy. Awareness of leprosy should be raised in non-endemic countries like Kuwait which have a sizeable expatriate work force coming from endemic areas