Medical Keywords - Everything you need to know about health.

Leprosy - A Disease with Quite a Stigma Attached

Leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease, is a condition with quite a stigma attached. In history, there have been reports of leper colonies established, many times in isolated areas and on islands away from the rest of the world. These lepers became society's forgotten people. The fact of the matter is that while leprosy can be quite disfiguring, it is not a disease that can be easily caught, especially if your immune system is strong.

About the Disease

Leprosy is a chronic bacterial infection caused by the bacteria mycobacterium leprae. This disease does have devastating, although usually not life-threatening, effects such as disfigurement of the skin, eyes, peripheral nerves around the spinal cord and brain and even various mucosal membranes like the nose.

Leprosy has often caused a lot of fear, mainly due to the disfigurement of people who have never received treatment for the disease. The thing is, it is not really contagious with casual contact and it can be treated with antibiotics. More than one million people around the world have the disease with the most of the cases occurring in areas like Nepal and India, Africa, areas of Central and South America and Pacific Ocean islands.

Exposure and Contraction Issues

It is thought that droplets from the mouth and nose of an infected person could infect someone else via this method. While this is true, more often than not, people exposed to leprosy via this way will never get it. It usually takes long, personal contact with someone with the disease. For this reason, there are not a lot of cases worldwide in the scheme of things.

There have been many cases of doctors and others working with people with leprosy for years and never contracting the disease. It can be quite hard to catch. However, it is thought that armadillos could pass along the disease as well as mosquitoes and even bedbugs and contaminated soil.

Symptoms and Treatment of Leprosy

The bacteria that causes leprosy tends to reproduce slowly; therefore it can take over a year or more after exposure for the disease to manifest itself visibly. Even then, progress is slow, allowing plenty of time for antibiotic treatment.

The skin will develop rashes and bumpy areas and the nerves in the skin and muscle areas are affected causing numbness and weak movements. It is this numbness in the leprosy cases - both mild and advanced - that become the problem. When they cannot feel an injury like a cut or burn, this area can become infected. If left untreated, their condition becomes worse.

There are various stages and types of leprosy and they are start in the same way with the bumps and rashes that progress further and cause impairment of motor abilities. People with leprosy may also develop sores both on the outside of the skin as well as in mucosal areas like the nose.

Antibiotics are the best treatment for leprosy. While it does halt the disease, it cannot correct any damage to the nerves or deformities. Therefore, early detection is key to preventing these effects of the disease. If you plan to be in an area where leprosy exists, you could get a vaccine that is really used for tuberculosis that will provide some limited protection.