"Metabolic theory of leprosy"
To the Editor:
I have read the commentary of the book Metabolic Theory of Leprosy (IJL 68:333, 2000). Almost the entire article deals with matters unrelated to the metabolic theory. Only three paragraphs refer to it, and in a wrong way:
a) the paragraph "the treatment should consist in antioxidant diets" is false;
b) the paragraph "... and that should not be killed (M. leprae)" was extracted from: "the treatment of leprosy should be centered on the autooxidative disease and not on M. leprae. The use of rifampicin as monotherapy demonstrates that it is harmful to act solely on M. leprae." As a matter of fact, dapsone does not act on M. leprae, but on autooxidative disease.
The comment of Dr. Hastings is very poor and in part is false. Also, it does not give to the readers any idea about the mentioned theory.
- Prof.Dr. Meny Bergel
Director
Leprosy Research Institute
Buenos Aires, Argentina