en بهداشت عمومی Public Health پژوهشي Research <div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:12px;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"><span style="line-height:115%"><b><span lang="EN-IN">Background</span></b><span lang="EN-IN">: Leprosy produces different manifestations based on the body&rsquo;s immune reaction to the Mycobacterium Leprae bacilli The disease continues to be an important public health problem even after India declared Leprosy eliminated in 2005, with around 60% cases being reported from India globally. The objective of this study was </span>to study the trend and clinico-epidemiological pattern of leprosy cases attending the tertiary care center of North Kerala, India. <span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span></span><br> <span style="line-height:115%"><b><span lang="EN-IN"><span style="line-height:115%">Methods</span></span></b><span lang="EN-IN"><span style="line-height:115%">:</span></span><span lang="EN-IN"><span style="background:white"><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="color:black"> A record-based cross-sectional study was carried out at the tertiary care referral centre of Kozhikode district for a period of 6 months from January 2021 to June 2021. Data were collected during the previous 5 years, from January 2014 to December 2018, which included 328 confirmed Leprosy cases. </span></span></span><span style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span></span></span></span><br> <span style="line-height:115%"><b><span lang="EN-IN"><span style="line-height:115%">Results: </span></span></b><span lang="EN-IN"><span style="line-height:115%">The study included <span style="background:white"><span style="color:black">328 confirmed leprosy cases, of whom </span></span>230 (70.1%) were males and 98 (22.9%) were females. The cases showed an upward trend, followed by a gradual decline. The age distribution indicated a shift toward older age groups during the period from 2014 to 2018. 14% of cases were migrants. Despite symptoms, there was delay in seeking medical care in 30.2% cases.&nbsp; Multibacillary cases were the predominant type of leprosy. Moreover, male gender, older age group and migrants showed significant association with multibacillary leprosy.</span></span></span><br> <span style="line-height:115%"><b><span lang="EN-IN"><span style="line-height:115%">Conclusion:</span></span></b><span lang="EN-IN"><span style="line-height:115%"> The initial study period showed an upward trend in leprosy cases followed by a gradual decline. The study revealed predominance of multibacillary leprosy, especially among males, older age groups, and migrant populations, indicating the importance of targeted screening, early diagnosis, and treatment for high-risk populations to stop transmission and improve leprosy control.</span></span></span></span></span><br> &nbsp;</div> Leprosy, Epidemiology, Immigrants, Tertiary care centre, Kerala 28 36 http://jhr.ssu.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-2008-2&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Jishna Pulpadathil jishnapvijayan@gmail.com 0000-0002-9225-9196 No Government Medical College Kozhikode Fathimathusalma Othayoth fathimathusalmao@gmail.com 0000-0003-2205-3018 Yes Government Medical College Kozhikode Swapna Dominic drswapnadominic@gmail.com 0009-0009-9192-608X No Government Medical College Kozhikode Sarita Sasidharanpillai saritasclt@gmail.com 0000-0002-8467-2669 No Government Medical College Kozhikode Reena Mariyath OlasseriKalathingal mariyath71@gmail.com 0000-0002-5394-6620 No Government Medical College Wayanad