Leprosy:the Link Between the Disease and the Concept of Cure

Leprosy:Link Between the Disease and the Concept of Cure Patient's Perception of leprosy in the city of Nova Iguaçu, Brazil. Although Brazil it is experiencing significant reduction in the number of cases in recent years, leprosy is still considered a serious public health problem, according to Ministry of Health. The Project (Des)mancha Brazil is an inter-institutional partnership to eliminate leprosy which develops actions in the municipal health involving students in the area of health in an interdisciplinary way. The Federal University of Rio de Janeiro developed this interdisciplinary extension project activities related to the Leprosy Control Program in an area with high prevalence of the disease, Baixada Fluminense. Patients from this area are referred to the UFRJ's dermatology clinic. The aim of this study was to evaluate patients' perceptions about the cure of leprosy. 36 interviews were conducted with individual patients from Dermatology Service, UFRJ's University Hospital in this period: April 2010 to August 2011. Then, the interviews with patients was evaluated and its lines analysed. This work was characterized as descriptive / interpretative, qualitative in nature, supported by psychoanalysis theory. The analysis of the interviews pointed to the difficulty for patients to consider themselves cured. They do not accept that they are cured because they continuing on medication. Patients who have deformities are the most emblematic. They think their lesions demonstrate active disease and not as a result of delayed treatment or treatment dropout. We conclude that apart from the illness there is the difficulty to grasp the concept of cure. Whether by fantasies or by not clarifying their doubts during and after treatment by staff in which they are served. This reveals the importance of strengthening the bond between team and patient, and the necessity to review the criteria of cure.