Leprosy on Korea, 2001-2015: Situation, International Migration and Perspectives

Kim, Jong Pill

Abstract

BACKGROUND
Although incidence of leprosy in Korea has declined steadily over the years, the increase in immigration since the turn of the century-much of it from countries where leprosy is still prevalent-has been linked to an uptick in registered cases.
OBJECTIVE
To describe the epidemiologic trends of incident leprosy cases detected in Spain among Korea-and foreign-born population groups
METHODS
Observational, retrospective study of suspected leprosy cases in Korea, as reviewed leprosy records from the Korea Centers for Disease Control & Prevention from 2001 to 2015, with results disaggregated by country of birth. Author collected statistical data on leprosy burden for other countries from WHO(World Health Organization) to estimate the expected number of imported cases.
RESULTS
Of the 198 leprosy cases registered during the study period, 172(86.9%) were in Korea patients, while 26(13.1%) were detected in resident immigrants. Author identified a significantly higher number of imported leprosy cases during the 2004~2006, 2007~2009, 2010~2012 and 2013~2015 trienniums compared to the reference triennium 2001~2003 (OR 2.66, 95% CI 0.607-11.65; OR 8.33, 95% CI 2.05-33.94; OR 10.00, 95% CI 2.25-44.49; and OR 10.00, 95% CI 1.99-1.34; respectively). Most imported cases were diagnosed in Indonesia(23%) and Sri Lanka(23.8%). However, registered incidence was lower than expected for each year from 2007 to 2015. For example, in 2007, the expected new cases in immigrants were 8, compared to only one case that were actually detected (a 87.3% difference). Likewise, the author expected to find 24 incident cases among immigrants in 2014 and 2015, but only one new case were reported (95.7% fewer than expected).
CONCLUSION
Imported cases of leprosy are low than expected cases in Korea, and the author cannot rule out some under-diagnosis. Clinicians should be made more aware of the potential for leprosy incidence among patients from countries where the disease is endemic.