What does leprosy do to a person?

What does leprosy do to a person?

Before the introduction of Multi-Drug Therapy in the early 1980s, leprosy could only be slowed but not cured because the bacteria could not be completed eliminated from the body. Although leprosy is considered an ancient disease, people can still contract the disease today.

More than 200,000 cases of leprosy are diagnosed worldwide each year, according to the World Health Organization.

Leprosy is mildly contagious. Scientists suspect that people can be infected by inhaling droplets containing the bacteria that causes leprosy. However, it requires a significant amount of exposure, meaning that leprosy is often transmitted by frequent close contact (e.g. family members living in the same house). Most people who are exposed to leprosy will not contract the disease, as their immune systems are strong enough to fight off the infection.

For people who do develop leprosy, as the leprosy bacteria is very slow growing, people often do not develop symptoms for at least a year after they have been infected. In addition, it usually takes years of living with someone who is contagious to become infected..

Early signs of leprosy often begins with a rash or discolouration of patches of skin. The rash or discoloured patch of skin (skin lesions) can become numb. Over time, skin lesions can become more numerous with increased sensation loss and painless ulcers can also develop.

If left untreated, the disease can cause severe deformities and significant disability due to irreversible nerve damage. As people lose sensations in their arms and legs, they are less likely to feel or notice ulcers, wounds or seek treatment for them. In addition, wounds can take a long time to heal. As a result, ulcers can become bigger and infections can occur. In severe cases, amputation is required. In advanced stages of leprosy, irreversible nerve damage can occur, causing foot drop and blindness. There is a mistaken belief that leprosy can cause parts of the body to fall off. However, this is untrue, rather in advance stages, the body may reabsorb fingers and toes leading to the appearance of fingers and toes having fallen off.

Read more about Effects of Leprosy

Multi-Drug Therapy (MDT), the current recommended treatment for leprosy, can cure the disease and prevent it from worsening. However, it unfortunately cannot correct nerve damage or physical deformity that may have happened before the diagnosis was made. Therefore, it is very important to diagnose the disease as early as possible before irreversible nerve damage occurs.

The physical deformities caused by leprosy are often distinct and people who are suffering from the disease can often be identified by community members based on their physical deformities. In many countries, leprosy is still greatly feared. As a result, people with physical deformities and disability due to leprosy often face rejection and discrimination from their communities. Therefore, although leprosy can be cured, people with leprosy face significant difficulties gaining acceptance in their communities, finding employment, and are often some of the poorest members of society. Suicide has been found to be one of the main causes of death in people with leprosy.

It is important to remember that the medication used to treat leprosy is very effective in killing bacteria and that treated patients are no longer contagious. Leprosy can be cured, and most deformities can be prevented if diagnosed early

Treatment of Leprosy