Where are the lepers?

Question

Is leprosy still a problem today and if so what do we do with the sufferers?

Answer 1

Leprosy (Hansen's disease), is a chronic bacterial disease of the skin and nerves in the hands and feet and, in some cases, the lining of the nose. Anyone can get leprosy, but children seem to be more susceptible than adults.

It is not clear how the leprosy germ is spread, but household and prolonged close contact is important. The germs probably enter the body through the nose and possibly through broken skin. The germs get in the air through nasal discharge of untreated lepromatous patients.

Tuberculoid leprosy symptoms are a few well-defined skin lesions that are numb. Lepromatous leprosy symptoms are a chronically stuffy nose and many skin lesions and nodules on both sides of the body.

It usually takes about four years for tuberculoid leprosy symptoms to appear and about eight years for lepromatous leprosy symptoms to appear.

When and for how long is a person able to spread leprosy?
In most cases, a person will not infect others after about three months of starting treatment.

What is the treatment for leprosy?
Patients with leprosy should be treated with multiple drugs for six months to two years.

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;
A World Health Organization (WHO) Study Group recommended multidrug therapy (MDT) in 1981. MDT consists of three drugs: dapsone, rifampicin and clofazimine. This drug combination kills the pathogen and cures the patient;
MDT is safe, effective and easily administered under field conditions. MDT is available in convenient monthly calendar blister packs to all patients;
Since 1995, WHO provides free MDT for all patients in the world, initially through the drug fund provided by the Nippon Foundation and since 2000, through the MDT donation provided by Novartis and the Novartis Foundation for Sustainable Development.

The first breakthrough occurred in the 1940s with the development of the drug dapsone, which arrested the disease. But the duration of the treatment of leprosy was many years, even a lifetime, making it difficult for patients to follow;
In the 1960s, M. leprae started to develop resistance to dapsone, the world’s only known anti-leprosy drug at that time;
Rifampicin and clofazimine, the other two components of MDT, were discovered in the early 1960s.

Answer 2

This is a most interesting question. When I was a kid, there was leper colony in my state and if you contracted leprosy, that's where you went to live. I'm not sure what happened to that community. Now you have think about it, I'll have to do some research. At any rate, people use to be isolated when they had the disease. Thanks for stirring up my brain-cells a bit! Godloveya.

Answer 3

If I Remember Correctly, There Remains One Colony, In the U. S., In Southern La. DAVID C has Provided Much Good Information Above, Might I Add, Schawn Cells, Coryneform (Sp?) Bacteria, Armadillos and Mycolic (Sp?) Acid.

Answer 4

there is still a leper colony in kalaupapa peninsula on the island of Molokai in hawaii. it houses a small number of sufferers of Hansens disease (leprosy)