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Evidence of high endemicity of leprosy and yaws in the municipality of Balé-Loko in the Central African Republic.

The incidence of neglected tropical diseases (NTD) can serve as an indicator for assessing the quality of healthcare systems because these diseases affect the poorest populations, living in areas where healthcare access is most difficult. The Central African Republic Ministry of Health, in collaboration with FAIRMED, decided to conduct the survey reported here in a village named/owned by the Central African Society of Agriculture and Wood Peeling (SCAD). The study took place from June 11-20, 2017. There were 137 clinical diagnoses of yaws, 102 of them positive on laboratory tests. Moreover, 79% were highly contagious forms. The prevalence of yaws in our study is higher than the 11% found in 2012 in the Lobaye region [4]. We also identified 57 cases of leprosy by screening; 68.42% (n= 39) were multibacillary. Among children younger than 15 years, 8 (16.66%) had grade 2 impairments. The screening rate for new cases is 13.333 per 10 000, quite substantially higher than the mean rate of 2.9 per 10 000 for the 121 countries and territories of this WHO region in 2016 [6]. Among the cases screened during the study, 51% (n=29/57) were already known to healthcare facilities. This study demonstrates the extent of the NTDs in Lobaye in the Central African Republic.