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Stealthy leprosy pathogen evades critical vitamin D-dependent immune response

A team of UCLA scientists has found that the pathogen that causes leprosy has a remarkable ability to avoid the human immune system by inhibiting the antimicrobial responses important to our defenses.

Medicine & Health / Research

created Jan 29, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (6) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

A disproportionate burden of neglected tropical diseases found in India and South Asia

The open-access journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases today published a comprehensive report showcasing the disproportionately high burden of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) in India and South Asia. These diseases of pov ...

Medicine & Health / Diseases

created Oct 26, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

WHO warns leprosy spreading in India

Six years after leprosy was declared officially eliminated in India, officials and doctors are warning that the disfiguring disease is spreading in poverty-stricken pockets of the country.

Medicine & Health / Diseases

created Aug 06, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Leprosy case at Australian immigration centre

A rare case of leprosy has been detected at an Australian immigration detention centre, officials said Friday, but it was not believed to be infectious.

Medicine & Health / Diseases

created Jun 10, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 1

Indigenous cases of leprosy found in the United States

Using advanced DNA analysis and extensive field work, an international research team has confirmed the link between leprosy infection in Americans and direct contact with armadillos. In a joint collaboration ...

Medicine & Health / Diseases

created Apr 27, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

WHO: 1 billion suffer from hidden tropical disease

(AP) -- The World Health Organization estimated Thursday that 1 billion of the world's poorest people suffer from neglected tropical diseases such as dengue, rabies and leprosy that remain concentrated in remote rural areas ...

Medicine & Health / Diseases

created Oct 14, 2010 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Cause of the big plague epidemic of Middle Ages identified

(PhysOrg.com) -- The 'Black Death' was caused by at least two previously unknown types of Yersinia pestis bacteria.

Medicine & Health / Diseases

created Oct 11, 2010 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (25) | comments 14 | with audio podcast

Tiny East Timor declares war on leprosy

(AP) -- If there really was a place so remote it could be called the end of the earth, Adelino Quelo's shabby little hut would be prime real estate.

Medicine & Health / Diseases

created Oct 11, 2010 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

City living helped humans evolve immunity to TB

New research has found that a genetic variant which reduces the chance of contracting diseases such as tuberculosis and leprosy is more prevalent in populations with long histories of urban living.

Biology / Evolution

created Sep 23, 2010 | popularity 3 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

New use for once-cursed drug Thalidomide?

Thalidomide, the sedative blamed for tragic birth defects half a century ago, treated a rare inherited blood disorder, according to lab experiments reported on Sunday.

Medicine & Health / Medications

created Apr 04, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 0

Japan team uncovers thalidomide mystery

Japanese scientists have uncovered how thalidomide led to deformities in children born to mothers taking the drug in the 1950s and 1960s, according to a study released Friday.

Medicine & Health / Research

created Mar 12, 2010 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (6) | comments 1

Genetic variant offers protection against TB and leprosy

A study into why some people are more resistant than others to diseases such as tuberculosis (TB) and leprosy has identified a new genetic variant which affects susceptibility to these diseases. The findings, published today ...

Medicine & Health / Diseases

created Mar 04, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Leprosy susceptibility genes reported

In the first genome-wide association study (GWAS) of leprosy and the largest GWAS on an infectious disease, scientists at the Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS) and 26 institutes in China identified seven genes that increase ...

Medicine & Health / Genetics

created Dec 16, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

DNA of Jesus-era shrouded man in Jerusalem reveals earliest case of leprosy

The DNA of a 1st century shrouded man found in a tomb on the edge of the Old City of Jerusalem has revealed the earliest proven case of leprosy. Details of the research will be published December 16 in the ...

Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils

created Dec 16, 2009 | popularity 3.8 / 5 (13) | comments 11

Solving the 50-year-old puzzle of thalidomide

Research into the controversial drug thalidomide reveals that the mechanism through which the drug causes limb defects is the same process which causes it to damage internal organs and other tissues. The article, published ...

Medicine & Health / Cancer

created Nov 17, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 1

Leprosy

Leprosy or Hansen's disease (HD) is a chronic disease caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium leprae and Mycobacterium lepromatosis. Named after physician Gerhard Armauer Hansen, leprosy is primarily a granulomatous disease of the peripheral nerves and mucosa of the upper respiratory tract; skin lesions are the primary external sign. Left untreated, leprosy can be progressive, causing permanent damage to the skin, nerves, limbs and eyes. Contrary to folklore, leprosy does not cause body parts to fall off, although they can become numb or diseased as a result of secondary infections; these occur as a result of the body's defences being compromised by the primary disease. Secondary infections, in turn, can result in tissue loss causing fingers and toes to become shortened and deformed, as cartilage is absorbed into the body.

Although the mode of transmission of Hansen's disease remains uncertain, most investigators think that M. leprae is usually spread from person to person in respiratory droplets. Studies have shown that leprosy can be transmitted to humans by armadillos. Leprosy is now known to be neither sexually transmitted nor highly infectious after treatment. Approximately 95% of people are naturally immune and sufferers are no longer infectious after as little as 2 weeks of treatment.

The minimum incubation period reported is as short as a few weeks, based on the very occasional occurrence of leprosy among young infants. The maximum incubation period reported is as long as 30 years, or over, as observed among war veterans known to have been exposed for short periods in endemic areas but otherwise living in non-endemic areas. It is generally agreed that the average incubation period is between three and five years.

Leprosy has affected humanity for over 4,000 years, and was well-recognized in the civilizations of ancient China, Egypt, and India. In 1995, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that between 2 and 3 million people were permanently disabled because of leprosy at that time. In the past 20 years, 15 million people worldwide have been cured of leprosy. Although the forced quarantine or segregation of patients is unnecessary in places where adequate treatments are available, many leper colonies still remain around the world in countries such as India (where there are still more than 1,000 leper colonies), China, Romania, Egypt, Nepal, Somalia, Liberia, Vietnam, and Japan. Leprosy was once believed to be highly contagious and was treated with mercury — all of which applied to syphilis, which was first described in 1530. It is now thought that many early cases of leprosy could have been syphilis[clarification needed].

The age-old social stigma associated with the advanced form of leprosy lingers in many areas, and remains a major obstacle to self-reporting and early treatment. Effective treatment for leprosy appeared in the late 1930s with the introduction of dapsone and its derivatives. Leprosy bacilli resistant to dapsone soon evolved and, due to overuse of dapsone, became widespread. It was not until the introduction of multidrug therapy (MDT) in the early 1980s that the disease could be diagnosed and treated successfully within the community.

MDT for multibacillary leprosy consists of rifampicin, dapsone, and clofazimine taken over 12 months. Dosages adjusted appropriately for children and adults are available in all primary health centres in the form of blister packages. Single dose MDT for single lesion leprosy consists of rifampicin, ofloxacin, and minocycline. The move toward single-dose treatment strategies has reduced the prevalence of disease in some regions, since prevalence is dependent on duration of treatment.

World Leprosy Day was created to draw awareness to leprosy and its sufferers.

For more information about Leprosy, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.