No Role for Thalidomide in Leprosy
This paper from the WHO Leprosy team demonstrates that leprosy does not need thalidomide, which during the mid-1960s was reintroduced as treatment for a complication of leprosy called Erythema nodosum leprosum (ENL)--with the usual consequences. The paper outlines how other drugs work just as well, and without tragic side effects. The drug clofazimine is now a component of the multidrug therapy (MDT) introduced by WHO in 1981 as the standard treatment for leprosy, and which is now available from WHO free of cost to all patients in endemic countries, significantly reducing the frequency and severity of ENL reactions worldwide.   (14/May/2003)
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