Leprosy: Looking for Change

By: Ashna Das

What is Leprosy?

Leprosy, or Hansen’s disease, is a chronic infectious disease that affects the peripheral nerves, skin, upper respiratory tract, eyes, and nasal mucosa. This sometimes causes the nerves to degenerate, increasing the likelihood of burns and other injuries. Leprosy is also easily treated, with antibiotics and can be diagnosed using skin biopsies. However, the bacteria that causes Hansen’s disease, mycobacterium leprae, takes grows very slowly. In some cases, it can take up to 20 years for the signs to show! 

What Are Some Stigmas of Hansen’s Disease (Leprosy)? 

Despite this disease being extremely hard to catch and curable, leprosy is surrounded by a lot of stigma every day. Victims often have to deal with a lot of prejudice and discrimination due to uneducated myths of leprosy that circulate society. For example, many people believe that leprosy is very contagious and someone can get leprosy by simply sitting next to an infected person. However, leprosy does not spread easily from person to person and cannot be spread by simply shaking hands or talking to someone who has the disease. In fact, according to the CDC, around 95% of people cannot get leprosy as their immune system can fight off the bacteria that causes it. Scientists have found that it takes months of close contact with an infected person to get leprosy. Furthermore, this disease is usually found in tropical countries, especially developing or underdeveloped countries, like Brazil, India, and Indonesia; and is very rare in countries like the US and the UK. Another misconception is that leprosy is incurable. This is not true as leprosy can be treated with a broad range of antibiotics, and infected people can live normal day to day lives at work or at school. 

What Are the Effects of Hansen’s Disease (Leprosy)?

Like I said before, leprosy can cause loss of sensation in affected areas, which can cause unnoticed injuries. These injuries can be even more dangerous than others as the person would not know that it happened. For example, they might even burn themselves without them knowing. However, just because leprosy can cause nerve damage that causes loss of sensation does not mean it is not painful. Leprosy can also cause eye problems that can lead to blindness, muscle paralysis, painful nodules on the skin, and enlarged nerves. If this disease is left untreated, it can cause even more painful symptoms, such as chronic non-healing ulcers on the bottoms of the feet, finger and toe shortening, a burning sensation in the skin, and painful/tender nerves. Still, this is all the physical symptoms and pain they are feeling, not mental. Victims of leprosy also have to deal with the stigma that surrounds the disease as well. Due to all the misconceptions and stigma surrounding this disease, people with leprosy often have increased rates of mental illness and social isolation. They are shunned and made fun of by society. Movies portray leprosy as “incurable” and “highly contagious” when it is not. 

What Can We Do To Stop The Stigma? 

Instead of making fun of a disease or spreading misconceptions and fueled lies, we should learn about the things that scare us and spread actual, relevant information about this disease. Stigma does not only hurt them, it hurts us. By spreading myths and lies, we are preventing society from learning about something. Not only does it spread hate and pain into the world for people affected by leprosy, but it also spreads misinformation, which in general, is not good.

WORKS CITED

National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (NCEZID). “About Hansen's Disease (Leprosy) | Hansen's Disease (Leprosy).” CDC, 11 April 2024, https://www.cdc.gov/leprosy/about/index.html. Accessed 30 July 2024.

National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (NCEZID). “Signs and Symptoms of Hansen's Disease | Hansen's Disease (Leprosy).” CDC, 11 April 2024, https://www.cdc.gov/leprosy/signs-symptoms/index.html. Accessed 30 July 2024.