The HillIs a Dark Ages disease the new American plague threat? By Dr. Marc Siegel, opinion contributor — 09/08/19 03:00 PM EDT... Untreated, Hansen’s disease causes disabilities over time, with the peripheral nerves affected and the fingers and toes becoming numb. Multibacillary Hansen's disease, the more serious version, also causes skin lesions, nodules, plaques and nasal congestion. With eye involvement, corneal ulcers and sometimes blindness can occur.According to the CDC, there are between 100 and 200 new cases of leprosy reported in the U.S. every year. A study just released from the Keck Medical Center at the University of Southern California looked at 187 leprosy patients treated at its clinic from 1973 to 2018 and found that most were Latino, originating from Mexico, where the disease is somewhat more common, and that there was on average a three-year delay in diagnosis, during which time the side-effects of the disease — usually irreversible, even with treatment — began to occur. ...To read the complete article, please visit:
https://thehill.com/opinion/healthcare/460442-is-a-dark-ages-disease-the-new-american-plague-threatNote:
Many people are allergic to the three antibiotics that are used to treat leprosy. In addition, this drug cocktail does have pernicious side effects that can leave one disabled and/or unable to walk. I cannot take this drug cocktail. It would kill me.
I studied microbiology where we studied leprosy and tuberculous. These two diseases are caused by the same type of bacteria, called mycobacteria. Mycobacteria are enveloped with a protective layer that makes these special types of bacteria resistant to antibiotics. This is why three antibiotics are needed in this drug cocktail.
Not only do mycobacteria have this protected envelope, but also they have been infected by viruses, which enables them to mutate and become drug resistant. This is the real danger for both Tuberculous and Hanson disease or leprosy.
The good doctor who wrote the opinion piece above does not mention these problems in an attempt to prevent us from becoming scared, but we should be prepared. We should know what is out there in the streets of Los Angeles.
About ten years ago, a good friend lost her husband to a particularly aggressive strain of tuberculous. He had contracted it in Los Angeles where he had volunteered to help the homeless. Leprosy also has very aggressive strains that can kill.