[A survey for school screening in Senegal: considerations on the usefulness of this screening method and on the importance of endemicity among the youthful population of leprosy villages].
A mass case-finding survey has been carried out among the pupils as a test measure: in an ordinary rural village: 2204 examined children; prevalence rate of leprosy: 0.90 per 1000; in two leper villages: 333 examined children; prevalence rate of leprosy: 125 per 1000. The authors have emphasized: the difficulty of school survey and the necessity to entrust a skilled staff with this job. The general low prevalence of leprosy cases with children in Senegal: 0.96 per 1000, inferior to the threshold of 4 per 1000 above which school survey is advised to be carried out. The high prevalence rate of leprosy with the children of the leper villages (140 times as much as general prevalence rate). This situation could be the result of: the inefficiency of the chemoprophylaxis by DDS; the existence of primary resistance cases to DDS (some of them clinically proved), consequence of the numerous secondary resistance cases which have already been witnessed in these villages.