Question

In leprosy, a duration of 2 years is relevant with regard to which of the following?

• A. Treatment of paucibacillary leprosy
• B. Treatment of multibacillary leprosy
• C. Post-treatment surveillance of paucibacillary leprosy
• D. Post-treatment surveillance of multibacillary leprosy

Hint:

Treatment is months; the 2 years is the watch-for-relapse phase after a short PB course.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is C

Step 1: Sort the time periods used in leprosy. Active drug treatment is short (months), but the watch for relapse afterwards runs into years, so a 2-year figure should be tested against the surveillance phase first.

Step 2: The treatment courses are fixed: paucibacillary disease is treated for 6 months and multibacillary disease for 12 months. Neither equals 2 years, so options about treatment are out.

Step 3: That leaves the surveillance options. After completing the short paucibacillary course, the patient is observed for 2 years to catch any relapse, which is exactly the 2-year period in the question.

Step 4: Multibacillary surveillance is longer, around 5 years, so it does not fit 2 years. The 2-year window therefore belongs to paucibacillary post-treatment surveillance.

\[\boxed{\text{Post-treatment surveillance of paucibacillary leprosy}}\]