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Contents
- <a href="#Introduction">1 Introduction</a>
- <a href="#Description_of_.5Binsert_name_of_disease.5D">2 Description of [insert name of disease]</a>
- <a href="#Description_of_the_microbe">2.1 Description of the microbe</a>
- <a href="#Transmission_of_disease">2.2 Transmission of disease</a>
- <a href="#Prevention">2.3 Prevention</a>
Contents
* 1 Introduction
1.1 Classification
1.2 General
1.3 History
* 2 Description of Mycobacterium leprae
2.1 Genome
2.2 Transmission
2.3 Symptoms
2.4 Prevention
2.5 Treatment
* 3 Why is this disease a problem in India
* 4 Leprosy in Present Day
* 5 External Links
* 5 References
Introduction
1.1 Classification
Bacteria Actinobacteria Actinobacteridae Actinomycetales Corynebacterineae Mycobacteriaceae Mycobacterium leprae
1.2 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)
1.3 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
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