MYCOBACTERIAL FLORA OF THE SKIN IN LEPROSY

The presence of mycobacteria on the skin of healthy people and in lepr osy lesions has been documented previously. The present study observed the mycobacterial flora on the hands (by the hand-washing method) and fingers (by the inoculated culture medium using scraped material obta ined during the preparation of slit-skin smears) in 89 untreated lepro sy patients. We also evaluated the slit-skin smears from fingers for t he diagnosis of leprosy. In 16 patients (17.9%) mycobacteria were cult ured from scrapings and hand washings. The frequency of isolates from lepromatous (LL) leprosy cases (52.9%) was significantly higher than f rom tuberculoid (TT) leprosy cases (5.2%). It was observed that Mycoba cterium avium and M. scrofulaceum were the only opportunistic mycobact eria isolated from multibacillary patients, and two hypotheses are dis cussed to explain these findings. The slit-skin smears from fingers we re as satisfactory as smears from other sites for the diagnosis of lep rosy, but they were less satisfactory for estimating the morphological index.