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Leprosy

What is leprosy? Leprosy, also known as Hansen’s disease, is an infectious disease that mainly affects the, eyes, skin, nerves, upper respiratory tract and nasal mucosa. It causes severe skin sores, and peripheral neurological damage. It causes sensory loss in the skin and muscle weakness. Leprosy is caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium leprae. Many people think that this disease is very contagious. But leprosy is actually not that contagious. In order to get leprosy you have to come into close contact with nose and mouth droplets from someone that has an untreated case of leprosy. In many cases children contract this disease more so than adults. What is the cause of leprosy? Leprosy is caused by the bacillus bacterium M. leprae. M. leprae was discovered by the scientist G.A Hansen in 1873. This bacterium is a slow-growing, intercellular pathogen that cannot live outside its host. Therefore, studies on this bacterium are extremely difficult because it can take an extremely long time for this bacterium to grow. Another reason it is so difficult is because it can not be grown in a lab. It has to be grown inside of an animal. What are some of the signs and symptoms of Leprosy? Since Leprosy is so slow-growing, it can take many years for signs or symptoms to even show up. Most of the symptoms affect the skin, nerves, and mucosa membranes. Leprosy can cause, skin sores, growths on the skin, numbness of skin, muscle weakness or paralysis especially in the hands and feet, enlarged nerves, nose bleeds, ulcers on the soles of the feet, eye problems that can possibly even lead to blindness, and many other possible symptoms. Since leprosy can cause numbness to parts of your body you should be careful and try not to get any other injuries. These injuries could go unnoticed and cause further problems. Since some of these symptoms are so vague and can be causes of many other problems, it is sometimes very hard to diagnose leprosy. A skin biopsy is needed in order to definitely diagnose leprosy. What are some of the possible treatment methods for leprosy? There are three different types of leprosy. The treatment of leprosy is determined by the specific type of leprosy that you have. The three types are tuberculoid, lepromatous, and borderline leprosy. Tuberculoid is a milder, less severe case of leprosy. Lepromatous is a more severe form of leprosy. Borderline is a combination of symptoms of both tuberculoid and lepromatous. Leprosy is treated with many rounds of different antibiotics. The recommendation of treatment is two antibiotics for six months to a year. The more severe cases of leprosy are treated with a longer time period of these antibiotics. Anti-inflammatory medications and steroids are also used to control the swelling that can be caused by leprosy. Where areas of the world are most affected by leprosy? According to the World Health Organization most of the cases of leprosy have been found in either Africa or Asia. There have been several cases in the United States also. These cases have mainly been in Hawaii, California, and in the south. Leprosy has been found in many different areas of the world. In this day, leprosy is mainly found in Angola, Brazil, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, India, Madagascar, Mozambique, Nepal, and the United Republic of Tanzania. These countries account for 75 percent of the cases of leprosy. According to the World health Organization there was 219,075 new cases reported as of last year.

Works Cited

(n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.who.int/wer/2012/wer8734.pdf

(n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/guide/leprosy-symptoms-treatments-history

(n.d.). Retrieved from website: http://www.cdc.gov/leprosy

Tortora, Gerard , Berdell Funke, and Christine Case.Microbiology: An Introduction. Pearson Education, Inc. , print.

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