Mycobacterium leprae in India

Introduction

Classification

Bacteria Actinobacteria Actinobacteridae Actinomycetales Corynebacterineae Mycobacteriaceae Mycobacterium leprae

General

Mycobacterium leprae causes the chronic infectious disease called leprosy also known as Hansen's disease named after Gerhard Henrik Armauer Hansen (29 July 1841 – 12 February 1912) a Norwegian physician, who was the first to identify it in 1873 as the causative agent of leprosy. (2) M. leprae is a gram-positive rod-shaped, acid-fast bacillus. The disease mainly affects the skin, the peripheral nerves, mucosa of the upper respiratory tract and also the eyes, apart from some other structures. (3)

History

Leprosy in India dates as far back as the second millennium B.C. Recent findings of a male skeleton, after being tested for age, shows that the skeleton is from 2000 B.C. The skeleton shows symptoms of leprosy including degenerative joint disease and injury to the peripheral skeleton. This skeleton is the oldest evidence of leprosy in India. (Robbins)

Olden India categorized two types of leprosy: anaesthetic and tuberculated. Lepra anaesthetica is a more rare form of the two. It alters cutaneous nerves of body parts. Lepra tuberculosa is the general form of leprosy. It deteriorates the skin and tissues of the body. (7) Symptoms described from olden India perfectly match what are the current symptoms of Kushtha (leprosy in Indian) today. The disease has been known to exist in India for, at the very minimum, three thousand years. (11) About twenty persons out of ten thousand had this disease. (7) Some cases of leprosy have extremities in terms of duration, how long the disease affects the patient. The shortest duration in a case has been one year, and the longest duration has been up to forty years. (54)

Leprosy seemed to be especially prevalent in the district of Kumaun in the late 1800’s. (23) In a statistical study, the disease was more prominent in the eastern side of the district rather than the western side. (26) Research showed that there would not be an increase in leprosy of the population of Kumaun, as long as the disease was hereditary. (71)

In a 1852 census, for every four males that had leprosy, only one female had leprosy. In the previous census, the ratio for males to females with leprosy was almost ten to one. For some reason, the leprosy ratio decreased rapidly. (25) However, with more recent studies, it seems that leprosy has been affecting females more than males (53). For ages 20-30, the percentage of males diseased is 20.0% whereas for females the percentage is 26.4% (53).

Description of Mycobacterium leprae

Genome

The complete sequence is 3,268,203 bp in length with a G+C content of 57.8%, and was generated from a combination of cosmid and 6-fold whole-genome shotgun sequencing. The start of the sequence is the first base of the dnaA gene, close to the origin of replication. There are 1,604 protein-coding genes and 1,116 pseudogenes. Both the sequence and annotation have been deposited in the public databases (NCBI) with the accession number AL450380.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/30407142 The Sanger Institute sequenced Mycobacterium leprae in collaboration with the laboratory of Stewart Cole at the Unit de Genetique Moleculaire Bacterienne, Institut Pasteu. Sequencing was funded by the Heiser Program for Research in Leprosy and Tuberculosis of The New York Community Trust, L'Association Raoul Follereau, The Wellcome Trust, ILEP, and the Institut Pasteur.

Transmission of Disease

Traditionally, mycobacterium leprae was known to infect and affect the skin, mainly through lining containing epithelial cells and also the peripheral nerves such as those contained in the central nervous system. However, recent research attempts to elaborate further into such findings to narrow down a specific mechanism of infection, which to this day, is still unknown. Although a specific method proves lacking, there seems to be various hypotheses surrounding this greatly debatable topic. Thus far, it has been postulated that mycobacterium leprae may gain access to entry through two primary routes- the nasal mucosal membrane or through skin injuries. However, it has been shown that passage through the nasal mucosal membrane may be the primary route of infection. A study, focusing primarily on the mce1A gene in mce1 operon (mammalian cell entry) of mycobacterium tuberculosis which proved to have a similar set of encoded proteins as mycobacterium leprae; experiment was to be done in vitro, to observe the cell uptake activity of polystyrene latex beads which are layered with purified recombinant r proteins expressed by a specific locus within the mce1A gene. The results showed that the r-protein did promote uptake of the polystyrene latex beads into human nasal mucosal cells which concludes that the mce1A gene could mediate the entry of mycobacterium leprae into respiratory mucosal tracts and may possibly be the main mode of transmission of such microbe. Additionally, endothelial cells may perhaps serve as a microbial reservoir, the cause of long-term infections. Unlike many other mycobacteriums, mycobacterium leprae does not only survive in macrophages in vivo, it can also survive in nonmacrophage cells such as epithelial cells (as shown previously) and Schwann cells. Extensive research has revealed that destruction of such nonmacrophage cells is the primary manifestation of the disease, leprosy. It has been found that a mycobacterium leprae gene encoding fibronectin (FN) binding protein is the main mechanism of transmission via epithelial and Schwann cells. The interaction between FAP-L (FN attachment protein) and FN is an important step in the pathogenesis of leprosy; FN acts as an oposinin.

Symptoms

Leprosy is comprised of seven symptoms, some of which affect the skin, the saliva, and in general, the body (page 13). The parts of the body that are affected that were recorded consisted of the following: the face, ears, scalp, neck, upper extremities (below the shoulders), and lower extremities (below the knees) (36-37).

Why Leprosy is a problem in India

Based on historical evidence of skeletons and early written texts, Leprosy is thought to have first originated from India [1][2][3]. A 4000-year-old skeleton found in India, showed the earliest indication of human infection with Mycobacterium leprae in the world [2]. From India, the disease was then spread to China, Egypt, and the Middle East, and later to Europe and the Americas through trade and war [3]. In ancient India, there were rules against contact with those affected by leprosy and punished those who married into their families [1]. The cultural response to leprosy often included loss of social position and expulsion/seclusion, even of kings, from the community due to people’s great fear of contagion, its visible disfiguring disability, association with sin and the fear of contagion and its incurability at the time [1]. With increasing pressure from the public who were afraid of the contagious infection, the government enacted the Leprosy Act of 1898 [1]. This law allowed forcible confinement, segregation by gender to prevent reproduction resulting in thousands of leper colonies which still exists today even after the act was repealed in 1983 [1]. “On January 30, 2005 India celebrated the elimination of leprosy as a public health problem after achieving the nationwide prevalence of less than 1 case/10,000 population” when there used to be nearly 4,000,000 cases with a prevalence of greater than 50 cases/10,000 population [1]. However, in a population of more than a billion people, up to 100,000 people suffering from leprosy still remain [1]. Even with curable drug treatment, leprosy is still a major problem in India, with over 50% of all leprosy patients located in India [4]. The infection has thrived in India due to its poverty-induced, unclean, confined living conditions [4]. Leprosy was often found in those who were undernourished and malnutritioned [4]. Lacking money and knowledge, many still do not seek for help. Leprosy control and elimination in India still faces many challenges also due to cultural aspects of leprosy [1]. Many Indians choose to seek private nonallopathic (traditional) practioners who outnumbers the allopaths in India [1]. These private nonallopathic practioners continue to use botanicals and agents like chaulmoogra oil from ancient India’s practices which does not cure leprosy, only healing the wounds making the patients still contagious [1]. Changes in knowledge, attitudes, and practices needs to take place in order to eliminate leprosy from India.

Future Strategies in Dealing with Leprosy

In the past, India had the highest percentage in contributing to prevalence and newly detected cases of leprosy worldwide (67% of total prevalence and 73% newly detected cases in 2000).1 As of July 2006, 23 States and four Union Territories in India were proclaimed to have met the goal of leprosy elimination (prevalence <1 case per 10,000 populayion) as a public health problem; however, six states and two Union Territories are still working on achieving this goal.2

With constant effort to decline prevalence and detection rate of leprosy, WHO proposed strategies that will maintain and contribute in decreasing the disease burden. These strategies include: strengthening the incorporation of leprosy services into general health system and major support from “regional network” for ensuring early detection of new cases and immediate treatment with MDT and “collaboration with partners and community-based rehabilitation activities” will be acquainted to leprosy victims and their families.4 Also supporting IEC/advocacy activities to raise awareness and diminish the stigma of leprosy, and “promoting research aimed at improved tools, better approaches and cost-effective implementation.” (2) If these strategies were followed, there is an expectancy decline of “the physical, mental and socioeconomic burden caused by the disease.” (4)

References

1.Jacob, Jesse T., and Carlos Franco-Paredes. "The Stigmatization of Leprosy in India and Its Impact on Future Approaches to Elimination and Control." PubMed. Jan. 2008. Web. 26 Aug. 2009. <http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=2217676>.
2.Robbins, Gwen. "PLoS ONE: Ancient Skeletal Evidence for Leprosy in India (2000 B.C.)." PLoS ONE : accelerating the publication of peer-reviewed science. 27 May 2009. Web. 26 Aug. 2009. <http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0005669>.
3."Oldest Evidence Of Leprosy Found In India." Science Daily: News & Articles in Science, Health, Environment & Technology. Web. 26 Aug. 2009. <http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090526202805.htm>.
4.Cunningham, David D. "Leprosy in India: a report." Google Books. Calcutta, 1877. Web. 26 Aug. 2009. <http://books.google.com/books?id=bDMAAAAAQAAJ&dq=leprosy+in+india&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=BAqiQpUlN2&sig=uUKTY8KP9Elqiz1hkaHg4CmVDWM&hl=en&ei=YpSTSvDjGpCgsgPLjti-Dw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9#v=onepage&q=&f=false>.

How is it transmitted? Is there a vector (animal/insect)? Prevention

Do lifestyle/environment/economics/political issues play a role? What is being done to address this problem

Include anything being done by the local government or groups as well as efforts by non-local groups. What else could be done to address this problem

Are there solutions that could be successful but haven't been implemented due to political or economic reasons? Are there successful efforts in other countries? Are there reasons why these efforts may or may not be successful in the country you've focused on? etc. etc.

References

Edited by [Katherine Tang, Victor Tran, Natalie Nguyen, Julia Chu, Millie (Mei) Liu, Jason Wang], students of Rachel Larsen