%A Cruz E %A Cellona RV %A Balagon MVF %A Villahermosa LG %A Jr TTF %A Abalos RM %T Primary dapsone resistance in cebu, the philippines; cause for concern %0 Journal Article %D 1996 %J International Journal of Leprosy and other Mycobacterial Diseases %P 0148-916X %V 64 %N 3 %X At a time when primary dapsone resistance was prevalent in many leprosy-endemic areas, Cebu in The Philippines reported only 3.6% in the period 1975-1978 and later 8.1% in the period 1979-1982. In our current study of patients in the period 1988-1992, the number increased dramatically to 52.7%. In addition, 7.9% of the isolates are highly resistant to dapsone, a level of resistance not seen in earlier studies.
This finding could have severe ramifications to the World Health Organization's multidrug therapy (WHO-MDT) mode of treatment, where dapsone is one of the principal drugs. Moreover, the increase in primary dapsone resistance may be a contributing factor in the recent finding that there has been no decline in the number of new cases found in Cebu, even after the implementation of WHO-MDT in 1985. There is a need for new drugs that could be included in the multidrug treatment for multibacillary and paucibacillary leprosy.