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In a county with 10.16 million people in it, 187 cases over 45 years is a very very small number.

Because of the movements of people, deaths, births, vacation visits, this count of the population is misleading too.

Many more people than 10.16 million people have been present in the county over the 45 year period. That figure could balloon to over 50 million quite easily, people being born, people dying, people moving in moving out, and people simply visiting...

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.

Using the simple numbers, we’re looking at a little over four diagnosed cases per year, during that 45 years.

With as many people seeing physicians as there are, I can see how diagnosis might be missed in some instances. It’s a rare disease. How rare?

With thousands of physicians, clinics, hospitals, and other places that might see patients in the county, hardly any of these entities will ever see a case of Leprosy.

To say this is a nothing burger, is an understatement. It seems as if the talk of it at all would nearly have to be sensationalism. Scare the crap out of people who don’t think it out.

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).

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.
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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!"