Leprosy

__Leprosy__ **Leprosy** (also known as Hansen's Disease) is a disease that has been known since biblical times. It is said to affect the nervous system, damage skin, weaken bones, and cause sores, rashes, and other deformities. Leprosy is caused by the bacteria //Mycobacterium leprae//. It is rod-shaped (a bacilli), and also belongs to the family //Mycobacteriaceae//, which is in the same group of bacteria that causes tuberculosis. //Mycobacterium leprae// grows at a very slow pace, and is said to have the longest doubling time of any known bacteria, making it hard to study in the lab. The way this bacteria can survive and harm human beings is still poorly understood today. The leprosy incubation period (time between getting infected and the symptoms starting to occur) can take up from three to five years. Despite this typical time frame, it is possible for symptoms to start to be seen on the body from several months after getting infected to several decades. As previously stated, leprosy usually causes an effect on the skin and peripheral nerves, though symptoms have been shown to vary widely in the means of severity. The general symptoms & effects of leprosy include the following:
 * Extreme sensory loss (nerves) in a short amount of time in various parts of the body (toes, fingers, etc.)
 * Skin sores/rashes & discoloration
 * Skin stiffness & dryness
 * Nodules on the skin
 * Pain & pressure
 * Muscle weakness
 * Physical deformities (leading to necessary amputations)
 * Loss of fingers & toes (in some cases)
 * Eye problems (can lead to blindness)

Despite the apparent severity of the disease, there is in fact a cure for leprosy through multidrug therapy (MDT). According to the World Health Organization's official reports received (see here), "during 2011 from 130 countries and territories, the global registered prevalence of leprosy at the beginning of 2011 stood at 192,246 cases, while the number of new cases detected during 2010 was 228,474 (excluding the small number of cases in Europe)". As seen here, leprosy is getting closer each year to being eradicated entirely. The overall treatment of leprosy involves antibiotic use to kill the //Mycobacterium leprae// in an individual, and the most common drugs to do so include dapsone, rifampin, and clofazimine through combining.

Humans are not the only species of mammal able to contract leprosy. //Mycobacterium leprae// has also been proven to be found in armadillos. Even though //Mycobacterium leprae// was not discovered recently, scientists up to this day still do not fully understand how the disease is transmitted from one individual to another, though there are some hypotheses: The degree of natural susceptibility one has to the disease is also said to play a large roll in determining who will be infected and who will not. Leprosy is usually found in tropic, subtropic, and temperate climates, though there are still cases all in all different parts of the world.
 * 1) Infected respiratory droplets (most common educated guess)
 * 2) Contraction from the environment
 * 3) Degree of exposure
 * 4) Animal contact (rare)

Recent studies have shown that a dose of the drug rifampin can reduce the rate at which individuals contract leprosy after coming into contact with those who are already infected in a two year span. Though there is not a definite way to prevent leprosy, as it is so little understood today, there are still practices that can be followed. Leprosy was originally known to be "God's curse", as those who were said to have leprosy in biblical times were treated very badly, and were outcast from society. In some parts of the world, this view on the disease is still quite apparent today. To prevent the spread of the disease, it would help that there was more improvement of the disease detection as well as teaching others about what leprosy can do. It would help to combat the ideology in certain societies that those with leprosy are "unclean" and shunned. People need proper treatment for the disease, and it would be beneficial that this occurred close to the point in time where symptoms started showing up on an individual so that they do not get worse, and so that the disease does not spread and is abolished quickly.

__**Bibliography:**__ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0002323/ http://www.leprosy.ca/Page.aspx?pid=245 http://www.who.int/lep/microbiology/en/index.html http://www.nps.gov/kala/historyculture/hansens2.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mycobacterium_leprae http://bacteria.emedtv.com/mycobacterium-leprae/mycobacterium-leprae.html http://diseases.emedtv.com/leprosy/leprosy-symptoms.html http://www.webspawner.com/users/prashan/ http://www.who.int/lep/en/ http://diseases.emedtv.com/leprosy/treatment-of-leprosy.html http://www.news-medical.net/health/What-is-Leprosy.aspx