# Leprosy is India's secret epidemic: report



## Shadow (Mar 26, 2011)

*Leprosy is India's secret epidemic, says report*


(CBS) If you listen to the Indian government, leprosy has been conquered. But if you chance to meet any of the 130,000 new patients diagnosed with it each year, you get quite a different story.

That's according to a new investigation from the Guardian.


India has more new cases each year than the rest of the world combined, according to the report. Partly, that's due to India's enormous population, more than one billion people, says the World Bank. But another part is that the country has drastically reduced funding to combat the disease.


Leprosy is India's secret epidemic, says report - HealthPop - CBS News


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## strollingbones (Mar 26, 2011)

its called hanson's disease now....still a sad thing to have


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## Sallow (Mar 26, 2011)

I've seen Leprosy in Thailand, and believe it or not, in France. It's hardly gone away..and it ain't pretty.


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## strollingbones (Mar 26, 2011)

it never goes away....if i am not mistaken there is a vaccine for it now....but once you have it...you have to live with it


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## Big Fitz (Mar 26, 2011)

Thalidomide cures it... if caught early IIRC.

Just don't have kids while on it, but if you have Leprosy, what're the odds of you having sex anyway?


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## Big Fitz (Mar 26, 2011)

I'm just waiting for smallpox to pop back up.  You damn well know it's out there somewhere waiting.


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## Sallow (Mar 26, 2011)

Big Fitz said:


> I'm just waiting for smallpox to pop back up.  You damn well know it's out there somewhere waiting.



Yeah..in a corporate lab..with Patent #01238929.


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## strollingbones (Mar 26, 2011)

i salute the rotary club for trying to do away with polio


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## geauxtohell (Mar 26, 2011)

Leprosy is from the same bacterial family as TB.  It's an acid fast bacillus somewhere (evolutionarily) between a fungus and a bacteria (though technically a bacteria).  

It's hard to get, but once you get it, it's hard to manage.


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## waltky (Apr 28, 2011)

Granny tol' Uncle Ferd he can't go armadiller huntin' with his friends no more

*Eating armadillos blamed for leprosy in the South*
_4/27/2011 - Disease likely spreads when people handle, eat the animals, which carry bacteria for disfiguring disease_


> With some genetic sleuthing, scientists have fingered a likely culprit in the spread of leprosy in the southern United States: the nine-banded armadillo.  DNA tests show a match in the leprosy strain between some patients and these prehistoric-looking critters  a connection scientists had suspected but until now couldn't pin down.  "Now we have the link," said James Krahenbuhl, who heads a government leprosy program that led the new study.
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> Only about 150 leprosy cases occur each year in the U.S., mostly among travelers to places like India, Brazil and Angola where it's more common. The risk of getting leprosy from an armadillo is low because most people who get exposed don't get sick with the ancient scourge, known medically as Hansen's disease and now easily treatable.  Armadillos are one of the very few mammals that harbor the bacteria that cause the sometimes disfiguring disease, which first shows up as an unusual lumpy skin lesion.
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## Grace (Apr 28, 2011)

Shudder. What a horrible disease.


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## B. Kidd (May 1, 2011)

A stunning report. 
Made my left eyeball fall out.


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## Mad Scientist (May 1, 2011)

Sallow said:


> I've seen Leprosy in Thailand, and believe it or not, in France. It's hardly gone away..and it ain't pretty.


My Dad and his wife have, through their Church, done volunteer work at a leper colony in Mexico.


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## Shadow (May 1, 2011)

Big Fitz said:


> I'm just waiting for smallpox to pop back up.  You damn well know it's out there somewhere waiting.



Could happen as more and more people sign waivers against taking certain vaccines.  We recently had a 27 yr old (who never took the vaccine) here in NM diagnosed with measles.  She got it during a trip to Europe and exposed everyone on the way back to Santa Fe to it. NM Dept of Desease Control was tracking people down from Baltimore,Washington etc. in Feb,letting them know they could have been exposed to it.


Whooping cough is another one we have seen a rise in.  Brought to the States by illegals and others from other countries that were never vaccinated.  Deadly to infants.


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## geauxtohell (May 1, 2011)

Shadow said:


> Big Fitz said:
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> 
> > I'm just waiting for smallpox to pop back up.  You damn well know it's out there somewhere waiting.
> ...



We don't vaccinate against smallpox anymore (barring a select few).

Some people who are immune lose their immunity too.  I had the MMR at the time of my birth, and must checked my titers to find out I was only immune to mumps.  So I had to restart that shot series.  

The rise in Pertussis/whooping cough is as much attributable to the dumbasses who refuse to get the Tdap shot due to fears of autism.


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## Shadow (May 1, 2011)

geauxtohell said:


> Shadow said:
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> > Big Fitz said:
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Yes, I agree..  Now when the schools contact you letting you know your children are due for shots...they ask for either updated shot records or a waiver from your doctor to exempt your kids from getting the vaccines.  I know from living in NM that waiving any vaccines is stupid with the amount of illegals that show up here and bring illnesses with them due to no regulations in their own countries.  We have public service announcements all the time about things such as Whooping cough being a rising problem now.


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## waltky (Oct 1, 2016)

Armadillos can give ya leprosy...




*Old Vaccine Brings India New Hope in Fight Against Leprosy*
_September 30, 2016 - India's decision to conduct new trials on the world’s first leprosy vaccine is eliciting hope it will help eliminate the dreaded disease from the country._


> Following a declaration by the World Health Organization (WHO), India has been officially counted as a leprosy-free country since 2005, meaning less than one person in 10,000 people is afflicted with disease. Many experts, however, say the true rate of infection is much higher, accounting for more than 60 percent of the world’s new cases.  Indian authorities recently announced they would soon roll out an advanced field implementation trial of the vaccine Mycobacterium Indicus Pranii, or MIP.  “In the early field trials of the MIP, the vaccine’s protective efficacy was found to be quite encouraging, with 68.6 percent of people being protected for four years and 59 percent being protected for eight years.  This vaccine also expedites cure rates to people already infected with the disease,” said Dr. Utpal Sengupta, a leading New Delhi-based leprosy researcher, who has worked in the field for more than four decades. “It has the ability to bolster India’s new campaign, which aims to eliminate leprosy as a public health problem by 2020.”
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## waltky (Jan 28, 2018)

Early Diagnosis and Treatment Can Prevent Disability from Leprosy...




*Early Diagnosis and Treatment Can Prevent Disability from Leprosy*
_January 28, 2018  — To mark World Leprosy Day, the World Health Organization is calling for the eradication of this ancient disfiguring disease by combating the stigma and discrimination that discourages people from seeking the help they need._


> Leprosy, a hideously disfiguring disease that has blighted the lives of countless millions since Biblical days, is curable. And yet, the World Health Organization reports more than 200,000 people, most in Southeast Asia, are affected with the disease and new cases continue to arise every year.  Leprosy is a chronic bacterial disease with a slow incubation period of about five years. In some cases, symptoms may occur within one year, but can take as long as 20 years to appear.
> 
> Leprosy was eliminated globally as a public health problem in 2000, but the disease persists in individuals and communities. WHO spokesman, Tarik Jasarevic, tells VOA this is unacceptable, as an effective treatment exists that can fully cure people of leprosy.  “Since '95, WHO has provided this multi-drug therapy free of cost to all leprosy patients in the world," he said. "In 2016, WHO launched global leprosy strategy, 2016-2020, accelerating toward a leprosy-free world. This is basically to revamp the efforts for leprosy control. The strategy focuses on avoiding disabilities, especially among children.”
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