[Global situation of leprosy and recent progress in molecular epidemiology of the disease].

Recent discovery of genetic diversity of Mycobacterium leprae such as variable number of tandem repeats opened a new era in molecular epidemiology of leprosy infection. It was revealed that the leprosy bacillus in residential environment of endemic villages is an important source of infection. The global elimination strategy will be revised taking new molecular epidemiological knowledge into account. Responsibility of leprosy specialist is to propose feasible control program to local administration based on the epidemiological analysis on transmission of the disease.