Leprosy is not contagious. They don’t know where it comes from. Haven’t you ever read the Thomas Covenant chronicles? Sheesh.
Most depressing fantasy series ever.
Assassin’s Apprentice is second.
I tried to read that series, because a friend of mine was obsessed with it. The misinformation drove me nuts!
Leprosy is caused by Mycobacterium leprae or Mycobacterium lepromatosis and is a very close relative of tuberculosis. Sometimes, leprosy manifests as a tuberculosis like disease; sometimes tuberculosis manifests as a leprosy like disease.
I’ve read the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant; they were not inaccurate as far as how leprosy is caused. They just did not provide a lot of information about it. Since the first Thomas Covenant books were written in the 1970s, the author may not have known about the connection between armadillos and leprosy, and, therefore, Covenant’s disease would have been of mysterious origin.