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Posted on 07/28/2026 11:10:53 AM PDT by dynachrome
Nine-banded armadillos are a common sight across the southern US.
You’ll find them digging in flower beds and underneath your porch. Sometimes, unfortunately, they unsuccessfully attempt to cross a busy road.
They are, for the most part, harmless. But experts say the adorable armored creatures may be the culprit behind a rising number of cases of an ancient disease.
Well, “ancient” is only partly true — leprosy, aka Hansen’s Disease, is a 4,000-year-old illness, but it infects as many as 200,000 around the world today.
In the US, there are a few hundred cases a year and numbers are climbing. Florida has some of the highest rates of infection in the country, with 17 so far this year.
Cases have been steadily climbing here, too: Florida had just eight cases in 2022 but 23 in 2023, 20 in 2024 and 26 last year. Central Florida appears to be a hot spot, with 40 of the 74 cases reported from 2019 to 2022 (55%) located in Brevard County, WJXT4 reports.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
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Rid the Country of illegals and problem solved.
A few years ago parents at an elementary School in California received a notice that they might have been exposed to HANSON’S DISEASE.
Came with the illegals from the South.
.22lr
A few years ago I used to live in Northern Alabama and the armadillos had invaded that part of the world. I biked a lot when I was there and the smell of a dead armadillo on a hot day is “memorable”. I would describe it as “sickeningly sweet”.
Are they really sure it was the armadillos and not those other filthy animals that Biden was importing for 4 years?
I wanna go home with the armadillo
Good country music from Amarillo and Abilene
The friendliest people and the prettiest women you ever seen
I saw a dead armadillo on the street a few days ago in central Florida and I hadn’t seen that in years.
Or they may not.
A moose once bit my sister.
Armadillos? Yeah, right! It was brought by illegal aliens.
In the fall, just after first frost, there's a few here in my Memphis neighborhood that dig up the lawns and flower beds for grubs and worms late at night. Their range goes up as far as St. Louis. I don't think they have any natural predators besides highway vehicles.
Multidrug therapy (MDT) — a combination of antibiotics, given free worldwide through WHO. Leprosy has been curable since the 1980s.
The standard regimen is three drugs:
- **Rifampicin** — the key bactericidal agent, kills the vast majority of bacilli quickly
- **Clofazimine** — anti-inflammatory and antibacterial
- **Dapsone** — the original 1940s treatment, now used only in combination to prevent resistance
Duration is 6 months for paucibacillary disease (few bacteria, few skin lesions) and 12 months for multibacillary. WHO now recommends the full three-drug combo for both types. Patients become non-infectious within days of starting rifampicin.
Two caveats worth knowing: MDT kills the bacteria but doesn’t reverse nerve damage already done, which is why early diagnosis matters so much — the disability associated with leprosy comes from untreated nerve injury, not the infection itself. And close contacts can be given a single dose of rifampicin as prophylaxis, which cuts their risk substantially.
Sure, they blame the poor little animals when it’s actually the filthy two legged Biden invitees.
Armadillo have carried leprosy in West Texas for as long as I can remember. It’s native.
To prove to the armadillos that it can be done.
Armadillos have been here since forever. Since when and how have they caught leprosy? Hmmm?
Armadillos have long been identified as carriers of leprosy. When I was in the Air Force stationed in Texas 50 years ago, they warned us about it. That, and skunks with rabies.
Exactly.
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