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NOTE: A surveillance case definition is a set of uniform criteria used to define a disease for public health surveillance. Surveillance case definitions enable public health officials to classify and count cases consistently across reporting jurisdictions. Surveillance case definitions are not intended to be used by healthcare providers for making a clinical diagnosis or determining how to meet an individual patient’s health needs.

CSTE Position Statement(s)

  • 12-ID-01

Clinical Criteria

A chronic bacterial disease characterized by the involvement primarily of skin as well as peripheral nerves and the mucosa of the upper airway. Clinical forms of Hansen"s disease represent a spectrum reflecting the cellular immune response to Mycobacterium leprae. The following characteristics are typical of the major forms of the disease, though these classifications are assigned after a case has been laboratory confirmed.

  • Tuberculoid: one or a few well-demarcated, hypopigmented, and hypoesthetic or anesthetic skin lesions, frequently with active, spreading edges and a clearing center; peripheral nerve swelling or thickening also may occur
  • Lepromatous: a number of erythematous papules and nodules or an infiltration of the face, hands, and feet with lesions in a bilateral and symmetrical distribution that progress to thickening of the skin, possibly with reduced sensation.
  • Borderline (dimorphous): skin lesions characteristic of both the tuberculoid and lepromatous forms
  • Indeterminate: early lesions, usually hypopigmented macules, without developed tuberculoid or lepromatous features but with definite identification of acid-fast bacilli in Fite stained sections

Laboratory Criteria For Diagnosis

Confirmed:

  • Demonstration of acid fast bacilli in skin or dermal nerve from a biopsy of a skin lesion using Fite stain, without growth of mycobacteria on conventional media (if done)

OR

  • Identification of noncaseating granulomas with peripheral nerve involvement, without growth of mycobacteria on conventional media (if done)

Case Classification

Confirmed

A clinically compatible illness with confirmatory laboratory results.

Related Case Definition(s)