About the Authors

Willemijn J. Idema

Affiliation Department of Public Health, Erasmus MC, University Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Istvan M. Majer

Affiliation Department of Public Health, Erasmus MC, University Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

David Pahan

Affiliation Rural Health Program, The Leprosy Mission Bangladesh (formerly DBLM), Nilphamari, Bangladesh

Linda Oskam

Affiliation KIT (Royal Tropical Institute), KIT Biomedical Research, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Suzanne Polinder

Affiliation Department of Public Health, Erasmus MC, University Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Jan Hendrik Richardus

j.richardus@erasmusmc.nl

Affiliation Department of Public Health, Erasmus MC, University Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: DP LO JHR. Performed the experiments: WJI. Analyzed the data: WJI IMM LO SP JHR. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: IMM DP LO SP. Wrote the paper: WJI IMM. Project director of the COLEP study: JHR. Supervised data collection at the field site of the COLEP study in Bangladesh: DP.