What is leprosy, exactly?
The bacteria attack the eyes, nose, skin, and nerves.
The resulting nerve damage means that people with Hansens disease can lose sensation, especially in fingers and toes.
This is where the myth comes from that leprosy causes fingers or other appendages to fall off.
What actually happens is that small injuries can add up, and the body may absorb the injured tissues.
Over time, this can lead to the disappearance or shortening of fingers (the CDChas photos here).
How contagious is leprosy?
Not very, it turns out.
About 95% of people are naturally immune to the disease.
Besides humans, we also know that armadillos can have leprosy.
So its probably possible to catch Hansens disease from an armadillo, but again, this is unlikely.
Most people who come into contact with armadillos are unlikely to get Hansens disease, the CDC reassures us.
So why do we think of the disease as something contagious and scary?
Likely because of Biblical descriptions of skin conditions that make a person unclean.
The report focuses on one case, a 54-year-old landscaper.
He hadnt traveled to any of those areas himself, and he hadnt spent time with armadillos.
So…he must have gotten itsomewhere else.
It is, to use the technical term, endemic.
Or in other words: We may just have leprosy in Florida now.
What happens if someone gets leprosy?
Fortunately, Hansens disease is treatable.
Typically this involvesa combination of two or three antibiotics that you would take for a year or more.
You stop being contagious after the first few doses of the antibiotic.
Antibiotic treatment can prevent the disease from progressing, but it doesnt reverse damage that has already occurred.
The CDC has amore detailed list of signs and symptoms here.
That said, this disease is still very rare (even in Florida) and hard to catch.
Most years, there are fewer than 200 cases of Hansens disease in the entire U.S.
