Some recent reports have shown close association between leprosy and AIDS, according to experts in Mumbai.

This was revealed at a meeting organised by the Indian Association of Leprologists on Wednesday.

Although there is a definite association between AIDS and Tuberculosis, so far the co-infection of Leprosy and AIDS seemed extremely rare.

"But the trend in reporting of cases showing clear association is increasing, " Dr R Ganapathy, director, Bombay Leprosy Project said.

"The issue is all the more intriguing as there is a definite association between AIDS and TB, a disease caused by the germ closely allied to leprosy causing bacillus (both belonging to the same genus mycobacterium but different species)," Ganapathy said.

During the meeting, it was informed that literature search by post-graduate students from city medical colleges have revealed that such cases of association were there but "not reported in the scientific forum so far," experts said.

Since some of the treatment modes of leprosy and the drugs given to TB patients are common,"it is important to study the association from the immunological point of view and experts should investigate at the immunological level as to what prevents the association of HIV and Leprosy," Dr R M Chaturvedi, professor of preventive social medicine at KEM hospital said.

The experts expressed hope that the trend could be clearer in future, provided those dealing with these diseases document their experiences widely.