Leprosy Persists in Los Angeles County, and Elsewhere

Medscape ^ | August 15, 2019 | Will Boggs MD

[catnipman]

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease, is rarely seen in the United States, but cases continue to emerge in Los Angeles County, a new report says.

Dr. Ochoa and colleagues identified 187 patients with the disease in a review of medical records from their leprosy clinic spanning 1973 to 2018. Most patients were Latino, originating from Mexico, and they experienced a median delay in diagnosis of more than three years, the team reports JAMA Dermatology, online August 7.

[DoughtyOne]

True, but this wasn’t about that. It was about scaring the public.

Leprosy is a charged word, but it is not the death sentence it’s legacy brings to mind. There are drugs today that stop it in it’s tracks.

People in nations like ours, don’t die from it. They medicate and go on with their lives.

[Svartalfiar]

We may be talking more in the range of 100 million or more people over time, and still just 187 cases over the 45 years.
...
187 cases out of 50 million people, is a factor of 3.74 per million people. If we’re talking 100 million people, you can chop that figure in half (per million).

First off, from the article that 187 number is ONLY from their leprosy clinic. How many other cases went to a hospital (much more likely), or other treatment center? And yet, how does that number compare to the rest of the country? From a quick Google search, the number is: The yearly incidence rate of leprosy from 1994 to 1996 was 0.52 cases per 1 million people in the United States. From 2009 to 2011, that rate dropped to 0.43 cases per 1 million people, the researchers found.

So, your extremely rare 3.74(1.87) per million, is still over three times the rate of the rest of the US, up to six times higher. That's decently more significant than simply saying "It's really rare, don't worry at all!"

[DoughtyOne]

I agree and addressed that misstatement in this post.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3772677/posts?page=53#53