Abstract: Objective: To evaluate the efficiency of comprehensive measures for early detection of leprosy cases in Shandong Province through comparing annual proportion of grade 2 disability among newly detected leprosy cases. Methods: In recent 10 years, active case finding activities such as rapid village survey and contacts tracing and passive case finding activities such as personnel training, public health promotion, provincial diagnosis confirmation, reward offering, strengthening of referral center and symptoms monitoring were performed. Results: A total of 113 new of leprosy cases were diagnosed from 2011 to 2020，including 71 males and 43 females, with a mean age of 52.5 years. Of 113 cases, 31 were imported cases who were mainly from Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan provinces with high incidence, and the majority of them were housewives and migrant workers. The local cases were mainly from the former high and middle epidemic areas, mainly peasants or unskilled labors. The average delay in diagnosis was 31.7 months from 2011 to 2015, which was 13.0 months from 2011 to 2015, with a significant difference (t=2.101, P=0.04). The annual proportions of G2D among new cases was 40% in 2011, which decreased to 20% in 2020. Conclusion: The comprehensive measures adopted in our province effectively reduced the proportion of G2D in newly diagnosed patients.

Key words: leprosy, early detection, grade 2 disability, symptom monitoring