Leprosy

Leprosy disease information

Written about and dreaded since Biblical times, leprosy is a bacterial illness that is the cause of permanent disability of two to three million people worldwide. The highest concentrations of leprosy sufferers are in India, Brazil and Burma.

Once an automatic sentence of banishment from society and eventual death, leprosy is now controlled by antibiotics. Incidence of new cases has consistently decreased since 2004.

What is Leprosy?

Leprosy includes two strains: tuberculoid and lepromatous. Tuberculoid-leprosy sufferers sometimes self-heal without any medical treatment. The lepromatous form is more severe, however. Its large, disfiguring lumps and bumps will almost always only worsen unless the patient gets medical help. Both are progressive illnesses that eat away at the skin, nerves and limbs. They also diminish eyesight.

As with people infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, individuals who are exposed to the pathogen might not show any signs of leprosy for years. This “incubation period,” as the lapse of time is called, can be as short as six months and as long as a decade. The disease pathogens are present in the body during this time and slowly multiplying.

Following this “incubation period,” the leprosy disease will begin to manifest itself in the form of red patches of skin and decreased sensation in some areas of the body. Leprosy symptoms become more dramatic over time. Untreated patients will experience severe pain, muscle weakness, stiff and dry skin, eye problems, thinning of the eyebrows and eyelashes and enlarged nerves (especially those around the elbow and knee). Eventually, the disease causes fingers, toes, and other body parts to become so withered that they “auto-amputate,” or fall off.

Leprosy Treatment

The first anti-leprosy antibiotic was dapsone. It worked for the first few years following its development in the 1940s. Unfortunately, dapsone-resistant strains of leprosy rendered it virtually useless. Clofazimine and rifampicin, developed in the 1960s and 1970s, yielded better results. A combination of all three, commonly called MDT (multi-drug therapy), is the standard practice today.

Individuals who have been exposed to leprosy but are not yet showing symptoms may be given Rifampicin. This drug has substantially lowered the incidence of infections.