[dp0622]

Leprosy?

What is this 40 BC?

[chrisinoc]

“Leprosy?

What is this 40 BC?”

I visited a lepers’ village on the Amazon River in 2006. Ugly disease.

[Amendment10]

Corrections, insights are welcome on this side note about Hansen’s bacteria.

Medical rumors about leprosy question if a genetic weakness may be involved, implying only a minority of people can get leprosy.

Also, the bacteria is said to be weak, suggesting that those who get leprosy aren’t eating a nutritional diet, their immune system consequently too weak to kill the bacteria.

Otherwise I’m sure many FReepers have Googled that leprosy is 100% curable.

The problem is...

The bacteria is said to work slowly. So even if you get contaminated by the bacteria, it may be awhile before you become insensitive to temperature extremes and otherwise painful bruising for example. (Based on unreferenced story about Florida high school girl athlete from Cuba(?) who discovered her leprosy after seeing a doctor about a sports-related bruise that she though didn’t hurt enough. Only thing left of her leprosy is minor scarring.)

Finally, regardless that leprosy works slowly, what works to leprosy’s advantage in the USA is this. Medical doctors aren’t used to dealing with leprosy. So even if you’re slowly going numb because of leprosy, it may be awhile before your doctor clues in on the possibility of leprosy and tests for that.

[JohnBovenmyer]

>What is this 40 BC?

Biblical ‘leprosy’ was almost certainly not the Hansen’s disease we now call Leprosy, which didn’t reach the Israel’s area until the early years AD. The peak period for modern Leprosy was the Middle Ages. It tended to be more severe in that era. There is good, curative, treatment available if patients can be diagnosed and if they’ll take the treatment as prescribed for the full course. Both ifs are problematic.