The Face of Leprosy Rehabilitation today: a descriptive study of new leprosy cases consuled to physical and rehabilitation Medicine Departement in. Dr. Soetomo General Hospital, Surabaya lndonesia

Leprosy is an important cause of preventable disability. Physical disabilities associated with leprosy are usually secondary to nerve damage resulting from the chronic granulomatous inflammation due to Mycobacterium leprae.Deformities and disabilities arising from leprosy are mostly feared by almost every culture. This stigma together with the disabilities make leprosy has big impact to deteriorate patients quality of life. According to official reports from The World Health Organization (WHO) received from 105 countries and territories, the global registered prevalence of leprosy at the beginning of 2012 stood at I8I.94l cases. The number of cases detected during 2011 was 219.075 compared with 228.474 in 2010. Indonesia presently has became the third highest level of leprosy infection in the world, after India and Brazil.6 Due to the stigma and disabilities resulting from leprosy, people affected have suffered reduced opportunities and experienced many forms of social exclusion - all in the context of a poverty-related disease.Therefore, it is easy to see that physical medicine and rehabilitation, according to its current objectives, is highly relevant for the people affected by leprosy, mainly because rehabilitation involves a comprehensive interventions that attempt to restore the person affected to as normal a life as possible.g-ll There are few descriptive studies showing the general image of leprosy rehabilitation performed in Indonesia The purpose of this study is to examine the most recent new cases of leprosy being consulted to P&RM Department Dr. Soetomo General Hospital Surabaya and to identify the demography characteristics, types of leprosy, impairments resulting from leprosy, and P&RM approaches applied