ABSTRACT
Hansen's disease is a chronic infection caused by Mycobacterium leprae. Current therapy for this disease is with the WHO recommended Multi Drug Therapy (MDT) with DDS, rifampicin and clofazimine. Hyper Baric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) has been used to treat many medical conditions including infections with a great deal of success. It's efficacy on various species of mycobacteria and other bacteria have been studied in vitro and in vivo and it is found to be an effective antimicrobial agent under specified conditions. HBOT has been used to treat Hansen's disease, including drug resistant lepromatous leprosy cases with good results. However there is a paucity of literature on this form of therapy. We have treated twenty cases of Hansen's disease with HBOT prior to exhibiting MDT as per the WHO schedule. There has been a marked regression in skin signs especially decrease in erythema and flattening of raised lesions. This correlated well with the histopathological picture which showed a reduction in the inflammatory exudate.
ABSTRACT
The interaction of Herpes zoster and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) was evaluated in 120 cases of herpes zoster admitted to our hospital and in 157 HIV positive cases detected in the hospital during the same period. The incidence of HIV seropositivity was 22.5 per cent in cases of herpes zoster without AIDS defining disease conditions. Whereas the incidence of Herpes zoster in cases detected to be HIV positive in the same period was 17.2 per cent. A large number of herpes zoster cases found to be HIV positive were in the sexually active age group viz. 21-30 years. Thoracic dermatomal segments were most frequently involved. None of the cases had severe complications or showed evidence of progression to symptomatic HIV disease.
