Leprosy - The Cause Of Leprosy, The Leprosy Continuum, Treatment Of Leprosy, A Leprosy Vaccine?
called south worldwide affects
Leprosy, also called Hansen's disease, affects 10-12 million people worldwide. Caused by an unusual bacterium called Mycobacterium leprae, leprosy primarily affects
Leprosy. CNRI/Phototake NYC. Reproduced by permission.
humans. Leprosy is found in tropical areas, such as Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and Central and South America. In the United States, cases of leprosy have been reported in areas of Texas, California, Louisiana, Florida, and Hawaii. Leprosy can take many forms, but the most familiar form is characterized by skin lesions and nerve damage. Although leprosy is curable with various antibiotics, it remains a devastating illness because of its potential to cause deformity, especially in the facial features. Fortunately, antibiotic regimens are available to treat and eventually cure leprosy, and two different leprosy vaccines are being tested for efficacy in locations worldwide.
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M. leprae is an unusual bacterium for several reasons. The bacterium divides very slowly; in some tests, researchers have noted a dividing time of once every twelve days. This differs from the dividing time of most bacteria, which is once every few hours. M. leprae cannot be grown on culture media, and is notoriously difficult to culture within living animals. Because of these culturing difficulti…
Leprosy exists in several different forms, although the infectious agent for all of these forms is M. leprae. Host factors such as genetic make up, individual immunity, geography, ethnicity, and socioeconomic circumstances determine which form of leprosy is contracted by a person exposed to M. leprae. Interestingly, most people who come in contact with the bacterium—about three-fourths …
Treatments for leprosy have improved considerably over the past 40 years. In fact, some experts believe that the drug regimens being tested in various trials throughout the world (including the United States) may eradicate leprosy completely by the year 2000. Beginning in the 1950s, an antibiotic called dapsone was used to treat leprosy, offering the first hope of a cure for persons with the disea…
A promising development in the treatment and management of leprosy is the preliminary success shown by two different vaccines. One vaccine being tested in Venezuela combines a vaccine originally developed against tuberculosis, called Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG), and heat-killed M. leprae cultured from infected armadillos. The other vaccine uses a relative of M. leprae called M. avium. The advant…
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