is leprosy a contagious disease?

Question

can it be cured ? how long it takes to cure primary leprosy?

Answer 1

Leprosy is a bacterial infection.... therefore infectious. It spreads by droplet nuclei.... Means if a patient with leprosy coughs or sneezes and you manage to breathe in the same air.... You could get the infection....But the catch is.... Leprosy is manifested clinically only when your immunity goes down. So the incubation period (the time between the entry of organism in the body and manifestation of the disease) is very long (can be even as long as 20 years).
Yes it can be cured. It takes about 6 -12 months of treatment (only oral medicines) and the person is cured. Treatment period depends on the type of leprosy.This can be determined by the doctor with clinical examination, a biopsy and skin smears.

Answer 2

Yes It Is Not very contagious
Modern medicine knows that leprosy is spread when an untreated infected person coughs or sneezes (but not by sexual contact or pregnancy). However, leprosy is not very contagious; approximately 95% of people have natural immunity to the disease. People with leprosy who are treated with medication do not need to be isolated from society. (Historically, people with leprosy were sent to "lepers' colonies" on remote islands or in special hospitals.)

Signs and symptoms
The earliest sign of leprosy is commonly a spot on the skin that may be slightly redder, darker, or lighter than the person's normal skin.

The spot may lose feeling and hair. In some people the only sign is numbness in a finger or toe.
If left untreated, leprosy has serious effects on the body, including:

Hands and feet - Leprosy bacteria attack the nerves in the hands and feet and cause them to become numb. A person may get cuts or burns on the numb parts and not know it, leading to infections which cause permanent damage. Fingers and toes may be lost to infection. Serious infections in the feet may require amputation. Paralysis may cause the fingers and toes to curl up permanently.
Eyes - Leprosy bacteria attack the nerves around the eyes causing the loss of blinking reflex (which protects the eye from injury and moistens the surface). The eyes become dry and infected, and blindness may result. Because of numbness of the eye, the person cannot feel dirt or scratches in the eye.
Face - Damage to the internal lining of the nose causes scarring and eventual collapse of the nose.
Treatment available
The good news is that leprosy is curable. In 1981, the World Health Organization recommended the use of a combination of three antibiotics--dapsone, rifampin, and clofazimine--for treatment, which takes six months to a year or more.

During the course of treatment, the body may react to the dead bacteria with pain and swelling in the skin and nerves. This is treated with pain medication, prednisone, or thalidomide (under special conditions).

Answer 3

1.contagious but 100% cure able.
2.6 month to one year in case of lepromatous leprosy.
for leprosy we don't use terminology like primary leprosy.
multi drug therapy available1- refampicine 600 mg once a month2.clofazamine 300 mg stat than 50 mg daily .3 dapsone 100 mg daily.
YOU ARE ARE VERY SPECIFIC SO NO NEED TO DESCRIBE DISEASE CONDITION.

Answer 4

Leprosy is not highly infectious. It is transmitted via droplets, from the nose and mouth, during close and frequent contacts with untreated cases.

Leprosy is a curable disease and treatment provided in the early stages averts disability; With minimal training, leprosy can be easily diagnosed on clinical signs alone.

Source below:

Answer 5

it is contagious on contact. Which is why people with the disease were either parked away from the rest of the population (and punished by death if they tried to wander away), or left to wander but with a bell attached to their neck to warn off travellers.

The former solution was, for example, adopted by the Romans. The latter was very common in Europe during the Middle-Age.

Yes it can be cured, with antibiotics.

A

Answer 6

Highly contagious! No known cure.

Answer 7

Yes it is contagious, and it can be cured today, but I don't know how long it takes to cure it.

Answer 8

No it's not contagious, and yes its curable, but I don't know how long it takes.

Answer 9

yes, contagious.....slow cure....few months to 1.5 years, depending on its stage at detection.

Answer 10

Leprosy is a chronic infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae, an acid-fast, rod-shaped bacillus. The disease mainly affects the skin, the peripheral nerves, mucosa of the upper respiratory tract and also the eyes, apart from some other structures. Leprosy has afflicted humanity since time immemorial. It once affected every continent and it has left behind a terrifying image in history and human memory - of mutilation, rejection and exclusion from society.

Leprosy has struck fear into human beings for thousands of years, and was well recognized in the oldest civilizations of China, Egypt and India. A cumulative total of the number of individuals who, over the millennia, have suffered its chronic course of incurable disfigurement and physical disabilities can never be calculated.

Since ancient times, leprosy has been regarded by the community as a contagious, mutilating and incurable disease. There are many countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America with a significant number of leprosy cases. It is estimated that there are between one and two million people visibly and irreversibly disabled due to past and present leprosy who require to be cared for by the community in which they live.

When M.leprae was discovered by G.A. Hansen in 1873, it was the first bacterium to be identified as causing disease in man. However, treatment for leprosy only appeared in the late 1940s with the introduction of dapsone, and its derivatives. Leprosy bacilli resistant to dapsone gradually appeared and became widespread.