Talk:Leprosy

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Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 02:28, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Does it kill you?
All this is good stuff, but the article says nothing about whether or not this will kill you or often it does kill people, or how long it takes to kill someone. How many survive to live a normal lifespan? Can someone get better on their own? How successful are the various treatments?

I'm not a doctor, so I have no clue. But that is what I came to this article for and was expecting to see. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.243.2.77 (talk) 05:08, 25 January 2012 (UTC)

It needn't mention it, because it's not an issue. Tom W (talk) 19:04, 7 September 2012 (UTC)


 * That's a rather dismissive statement and not helpful to lay readers at all. It's also not accurate. — QuicksilverT @ 00:03, 7 March 2016 (UTC)

Leprosy in India
Numbers are completely off, there are still more than 100,000 infections each year. 122.176.214.163 (talk) 20:39, 18 November 2012 (UTC)

New fast test available in 2013
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/20/health/fast-new-test-could-help-nip-leprosy-in-the-bud.html?pagewanted=all

Did I overlook the initial symptoms of extremity numbness, eye tearing? 68.188.203.251 (talk) 14:34, 29 April 2013 (UTC)

Treatment available in Romania
The statement ”Although the forced quarantine or segregation of patients is unnecessary in places where adequate treatments are available, many leper colonies still remain around the world in countries such as” is incorrect for Romania and, I suspect, for a number of the other listed countries as well. The people who still live in Tichilești (the former leper colony in Romania) only do so now because, having lived with leprosy for so long before treatment was available, don't have anything left outside that community. The problem is lack of social integration; the statement implies that leprosy treatment is unavailable in Romania and that patients are unnecessarily isolated, which is false.
 * http://www.esquire.ro/articole/reportaje/inapoi-la-tichilesti.htm
 * http://adevarul.ro/news/societate/reportajIn-leprozerie-nu-alege-1_50c614c6596d720091e2d970/index.html
 * http://www.9am.ro/stiri-revista-presei/Social/19126/Leprozeria-de-la-Tichilesti-cea-mai-deschisa-lume-inchisa.html

— Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.119.99.124 (talk • contribs)

Merge transmission and Pathophysiology?
The Pathophysiology section appears to me (as a lay reader) to extend the transmission information and make that section redundant.

Also the opening sentence of the Pathophysiology is contradicted by the rest of the information in the paragraph (ie there is not definitive information about how transmission happens)

Is someone with more subject knowledge able to comment please?

Im a teapot (talk) 12:59, 8 August 2013 (UTC)

It is still unclear how leprosy is transmitted. --Whsf (talk) 18:31, 28 February 2015 (UTC)
 * Done merged. Doc James  (talk · contribs · email) 20:09, 28 February 2015 (UTC)

The pathophysiology section has reappeared with a single line which makes no sense. Should be deleted Drsoumyadeepb (talk) 11:01, 17 June 2015 (UTC)
 * The question is what is the mechanism between the infection and the symptoms which is the pathophysiology. Yes it could be expanded upon. Doc James  (talk · contribs · email) 06:44, 18 June 2015 (UTC)

Clarification request
This part of the first paragraph is a little unclear to me:


 * Contrary to folklore, leprosy does not cause body parts to fall off, although they can become numb or diseased as a result of secondary infections; these occur as a result of the body's defenses being compromised by the primary disease.[4][5] Secondary infections, in turn, can result in tissue loss causing fingers and toes to become shortened and deformed, as cartilage is absorbed into the body.[4][5][6]

The article is accompanied by photographs of people with stumps where their fingers should be. This seems to confirm the basic idea of the folklore: that leprosy causes its victims to lose parts of their fingers. So how precisely is the folklore incorrect? Is it that the fingers do not "fall off", they shrink? Or is it that the "tissue loss" is not caused by the primary disease?

Currently it reads like the result of several rounds of quibling editing. Could someone with more understanding of the topic please rewrite so as to make it more precise, more informative, and less argumentative?

Chappell (talk) 19 August 2013

(cut from) Signs and symptoms
This is all very interesting (below) but doesn't list the symptoms. It lists a single external sign; but nothing about what the patient experiences during early onset, established disease and later symptoms. This is a very poor article in this regard. (posted by User:Stonelaughter)

Moses as a leper?
In the section regarding the Torah, it cites an Exodus passage that shows God showing a sign for Moses to use if neccessary, in which his hand would temporarily become full of leprosy. But the article, giving no details about it, almost makes it seem as if Moses himself was a leper. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 186.9.132.133 (talk) 04:46, 21 December 2013 (UTC) But in the quran it says that Mose put hand in his shirt had came out with no disease — Preceding unsigned comment added by 184.98.234.71 (talk) 23:57, 2 February 2014 (UTC)

95% naturally immune
Neither of the sources given seem to support the claim that "95% of people are naturally immune". The sources should either be updated or the claim removed.

Edit: Here is a source I found that is relevant http://jid.oxfordjournals.org/content/199/6/801.full — Preceding unsigned comment added by 163.1.99.253 (talk) 23:08, 8 March 2014 (UTC) 24.50.151.151 (talk) 20:58, 12 January 2015 (UTC) http://bmb.oxfordjournals.org/content/77-78/1/103.full I also take the view that it is not 95% immunity but weakening as demonstrated 'extensive reduction of its genome,' It may well be that we all have leprosy to a underlying extent. I also believe the 'eye tearing' is indicative and a form of cytitis is noted in the article.
 * Removed poor source. Doc James  (talk · contribs · email) 13:40, 14 December 2015 (UTC)

Possible cause for development of Leprosy bacteria
Recent information shows that consuming fermented, rotten, stale food can develop bacteria (bacteria Mycobacterium leprae and Mycobacterium lepromatosis) right in entrails itself and they then enter in body system finally causing infection of the disease. That may be the reason why we see that most lepers are found in communities who are very poor. Habit of eating fermented, rotten or stale food regularly such as Idli in India and bread in other parts of the world is responsible for this disease. Particularly stale idli, bread if consumed regularly that causes development of these bacteria. It may explain why poor localities find lepers more than in better placed societies.If this information which is still in development stage is found correct; we maybe able to control this disease by avoiding consumption of fermented food. Pathare Prabhu (talk) 13:17, 14 December 2015 (UTC)
 * Ref needed Doc James  (talk · contribs · email) 13:40, 14 December 2015 (UTC)

United States
Lists symptoms of infection rather than United States specific information, which are not cited and differing from the original symptoms section and endemic area section. First paragraph should be integrated into more appropriate section and symptoms if true moved to proper section. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Sjwmcguire (talk • contribs) 02:23, November 25, 2014‎ (UTC)

B-class, top-importance article
Hi, everyone,

Who watching this page is interested in building up this Leprosy article to good article status and eventually featured article status? I see this article had a huge one-day spike in page views recently, which boosted its ranking for the entire year of 2014, but even with fewer page views, the article important rationale is strong, so how about boosting the quality of the article by referring to more reliable sources on medicine? Who would find this interesting do for 2015? -- WeijiBaikeBianji (talk, how I edit) 17:49, 25 January 2015 (UTC)

Article name and infobox entry
I see other editors are editing the infobox at the head of the article back and forth between alternate terms for the name of the disease that is the topic of this article. This issue ought to be easy to resolve. Articles about medical topics (broadly construed) on Wikipedia ought to be edited according to the Wikipedia content guideline on reliable sources about medicine. Medical doctors have systems for naming and classifying diseases, and whatever the reference books about those systems of disease classification say about this disease should make clear what the official name of the disease is (which is what to put in the infobox). Of course, the first sentence of the lede paragraph of the article should refer to all the commonly used names by which someone might be looking up this article, and there should be appropriate redirects from other terms to point to how this article is named (an issue distinct, perhaps, from what to put in the infobox). The infobox should definitely follow the medical reference sources, period. -- WeijiBaikeBianji (talk, how I edit) 14:57, 22 February 2015 (UTC)
 * Yes Doc James  (talk · contribs · email) 18:53, 22 February 2015 (UTC)

Not what article says
"India has officially been declared a leprosy-free zone. "

But article says "Recently India announced it had "eliminated" leprosy. That is a pretty bold statement. If something is eliminated you might expect it not to be there any more. But, according to a target set by the World Health Organization, elimination simply means there is now fewer than one case in every 10,000 people. Given India's vast population, this means there are more than a 150,000 new cases each year - 150,000 people each with their own story of leprosy."

That is not how the word free is used in English. Thus this sentence is misleading. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 13:45, 13 June 2015 (UTC)

Names behind the cure
Unfortunately, Wikipedia is silent on the names of people who developed the treatment of leprosy that allows those afflicted to lead normal lives — Dr. Thomas Herald Rea (1929 – 7 February 2016) and Dr. Robert Modlin. See the articles in the Porterville Recorder and the Los Angeles Times on the occasion of Dr. Rea's death. Also see an article on the occasion of Dr. Rea's retirement in 2012, The Star — Radiating The Light of Truth on Hansen’s Disease, January – June 2012 Volume 64–13, page 3 (PDF). — QuicksilverT @ 00:03, 7 March 2016 (UTC)

What about Dr Paul Brand ?
"He was the first physician to appreciate that leprosy did not cause the rotting away of tissues, but that it was the loss of the sensation of pain which made sufferers susceptible to injury." --Jerome Potts (talk) 15:15, 3 September 2016 (UTC)

Misleading sentence in introduction
"Contrary to popular belief, it is not highly contagious." This is a very broad statement that appears nowhere in the referenced article. In fact, as far as I can tell, it is directly contradicted, at least with regard to "Multibacillary patients". I have noticed multiple incidences on this page where editors seem to have gone out of their way to reinforce the apparently unsubstantiated idea that Leprosy is non-contagious.

Here is the paragraph in the article most directly dealing with transmission:

"Although transmission of M. leprae is not entirely understood, it is thought that long-term exposure of the respiratory system to airborne droplets is the main route of infection.34,35M. leprae is not very virulent, meaning that most people affected with leprosy are non-infectious, probably because the bacilli remain within the infected cells. Multibacillary patients, however, excrete M. leprae from their nasal mucosa and skin.36 Close and repeated contact with these patients is also a source of transmission. Upon MDT treatment, however, the patients rapidly lose infectivity."

Saying that upon MBT treatment, Leprosy rapidly becomes less infectious is not nearly the same as saying that Leprosy is not highly contagious. By that logic, flu is not highly contagious because patients treated for the virus with antibiotics rapidly lose infectivity.

Feel free to comb the reference article and show me where that quote comes from: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1346-8138.2011.01370.x/full — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.84.0.47 (talk) 05:36, 19 February 2017 (UTC)
 * "Not very contagious" is very very different than "not contagious".
 * We have lots of refs that support such as and
 * And this is just plain wrong "By that logic, flu is not highly contagious because patients treated for the virus with antibiotics rapidly lose infectivity." especially as antibiotics do not treat the flu. Doc James  (talk · contribs · email) 05:45, 19 February 2017 (UTC)

The ref we use is this one "Byrne, Joseph P. (2008). Encyclopedia of pestilence, pandemics, and plagues. Westport, Conn.[u.a.]: Greenwood Press. p. 351. ISBN 978-0-313-34102-1." Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 05:46, 19 February 2017 (UTC)

Removed from the lead
This is in the lead and well referenced "Leprosy occurs more commonly among those living in poverty."

Poverty is discussed in the body of the text.

THe body goes into further detail with "Leprosy is most common amongst impoverished or marginalized populations where social stigma is likely to be compounded by other social inequities. Fears of ostracism, loss of employment, or expulsion from family and society may contribute to a delayed diagnosis and treatment."

Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 02:56, 5 May 2017 (UTC)
 * Not sure why no discussion here? Doc James  (talk · contribs · email) 20:33, 7 May 2017 (UTC)

Ref says "There is an association between the incidence of leprosy and socioeconomic factors such as gross national product (GNP), personal housing expenditures and the number of persons per household, suggesting that improvements in socioeconomic conditions greatly contribute to the reduction of leprosy" supporting that poverty is a risk factor. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 02:53, 10 May 2017 (UTC)

Other ref says "how rapid close contacts of leprosy patients are infected" indicating the requirement for close contact. The first ref also says "Close and repeated contact with these patients is also a source of transmission."  Doc James  (talk · contribs · email) 02:55, 10 May 2017 (UTC)


 * Additionally WHO says on page 136 "Poverty emerges as the single most conspicuous social determinant for NTDs, partly as a structural root determinant for the intermediary social determinants and partly as an important consequence of NTDs, either directly (leading to catastrophic health expenditure) or indirectly (due to loss of productivity)." and leprosy is a NTD. Doc James  (talk · contribs · email) 02:59, 10 May 2017 (UTC)

Histopathology of leprosy
Several images related to histopathology of leprosy can be found on Wikimedia commons here. One of these pictures could be used for this article. -- Netha   (talk)  08:34, 1 September 2017 (UTC)

Template:Gram-positive actinobacteria diseases
Should this template change "M. leprae" to "M. leprae / M. lepromatosis", and add diffuse lepromatous leprosy (which might need a swap for COMMONNAME)? ~Hydronium~Hydroxide~(Talk)~ 12:37, 15 April 2018 (UTC)

Text
Per this text

"Chaulmoogra oil was used for centuries in the Indian subcontinent despite limited effectiveness. This oil was developed by the American chemist Alice Ball into a treatment that allowed patients to return from leper colonies for the first time in the 1910s. "

No page number for the ref. Plus leprosy is not really contagious and people never should have been sent to colonies. No treatment was required to "allow" return other than the decrease in stigma. Would need a better ref for effectiveness. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 03:13, 18 December 2018 (UTC)

Spread
Ref says "it may be possible that they can spread it to people" not that in a few cases they do. https://www.cdc.gov/leprosy/transmission/

The summary "and possibly from armadillos" thus better matches the source.

"Spread between people" is less technical than "person to person transmission" thus restored.

Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 14:41, 6 January 2019 (UTC)

Leprosy-Parkinson link: Leprosy
A stronger source is needed for this: "The region of DNA responsible for this variability is also involved in Parkinson's disease, giving rise to current speculation that the two disorders may be linked in some way at the biochemical level. (current citation: )

I cannot access this review: PMID 15653309 If an editor has access can you please see it if can be used in the Leprosy section?

Thanks, JenOttawa (talk) 03:16, 13 January 2019 (UTC)

Lead image
I removed the previous lead image of Leprosy (link to my edit) and another editor added in a more representative image of a person who has leprosy (link to their edit). I noticed that you replaced the new image today with the previous one, which I felt was more appropriate under the history section. I am not a Leprosy expert, so all input is appreciated! Would you mind sharing your thoughts on this? Thank you.

JenOttawa (talk) 01:22, 28 July 2019 (UTC)


 * Solved: -- Tobby72 (talk) 00:44, 29 July 2019 (UTC)
 * Thank you for your help . JenOttawa (talk) 16:25, 29 July 2019 (UTC)

Leprosy & plague
ISTR reading the claim that one of the aftereffects of the Black Death was a drastic reduction in cases of leprosy: Hansen's disease apparently renders its victims more susceptible to plague, & more likely to die. (One would expect some effect on the gene pool as an aftereffect of the Black Death.) However, neither this article, nor Black death mentions this. Did someone set forth this theory? And if so, is there any scientific/medical basis for it? -- llywrch (talk) 20:51, 3 March 2020 (UTC)

I would be highly appreciated if you will share a reference to the ISTR reading COM-03 (talk) 04:30, 31 January 2023 (UTC)
 * The are two factors for drastic reduction in cases of leprosy after Black Death:
 * Black Death drastically reduced the density of population and thus made impossible transmission of many epidemic deceases including leprosy and plaque itself;
 * Hansen's disease apparently renders its victims more susceptible to plague because there is additional vector of transmission (in addition to flea bite). Leprosy results in loss of sensitivity and therefore the small wounds are not noticed and not treated. Secondary infection is usual for leprosy patients. But in the case of touching of plaque sputum it will result in plague transmission. Note also that Black Death killed all it's victims regardless leprosy decease;


 * I honestly wish I could recall where I read that. If I could, I definitely would have updated the article at the time. Otherwise, it has to be treated as something to look into. Sorry I can't be of more help. :-( llywrch (talk) 22:40, 31 January 2023 (UTC)
 * Thank you. I think a "secondary infection" section should be definitely added to the article. I will search for scientific/medical sources ans add it. What do you think? COM-03 (talk) 00:59, 1 February 2023 (UTC)
 * IMHO that would be helpful. Even if your research showed it to be an urban myth, this would improve the article. One problem with many topics is that people dimly remember something they read or heard (as I had), repeat it, & it contaminates popular knowledge. So it's equally important to document erroneous knowledge as erroneous as it is to document verified facts. -- llywrch (talk) 07:10, 1 February 2023 (UTC)

R0 number missing
How can leprosy 'Epidemiology' section be complete without R0? 1.36. 2600:1700:4CA1:3C80:652F:AC6:FF98:E11B (talk) 00:19, 20 March 2020 (UTC)
 * Thanks for this suggestion do you have a suggestion of where we can find it? I would be happy to help continue improving this article. JenOttawa (talk) 17:12, 8 February 2021 (UTC)

Amazing article!
This is a great article and should be lauded! Yoleaux (talk) 18:52, 7 April 2020 (UTC)
 * We have just submitted it to the WikiJournal of Medicine! JenOttawa (talk) 02:40, 15 May 2020 (UTC)

Technology for people living with leprosy
Hello, it has been flagged that including information related to new technologies to help people with leprosy would be helpful to include in this article. I am sharing it here on the article talk page in case a student tackles this article for a course or someone has ideas of sources to add this information. I found one primary source that has not yet been cited. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17483107.2020.1804631?journalCode=iidt20 so would not be ready for WIkipedia yet. JenOttawa (talk) 04:41, 6 February 2021 (UTC)

name of disease
is there any Wiki policy about renaming something like "Hansen's disease" to "Hansen disease"? --2607:FEA8:FF01:4E54:D102:AFD3:629C:3C20 (talk) 15:31, 9 February 2022 (UTC)

I would also recommend changing the name of the article to Hansen's disease (also known as leprosy). I learned from Dr. Kalani Brady, a long-term physician for the people who were exiled to Kalaupapa on Moloka'i, who told us that leprosy is the stigma of Hansen's disease. I would love to see this change made.

Hansen's disease is also preferred by the CDC https://www.cdc.gov/leprosy/index.html and WHO https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-03118-y --Partpickle (talk) 01:32, 28 December 2023 (UTC)

Copyright problem removed
Prior content in this article duplicated one or more previously published sources. The material was copied from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6947775/ https://internationaltextbookofleprosy.org/chapter/co-morbidities-patients-hansens-disease https://www.embraceavillage.org/what-is-leprosy/?utm_id=Awareness-MXC&utm_medium=Leads&utm_source=CPC. Copied or closely paraphrased material has been rewritten or removed and must not be restored, unless it is duly released under a compatible license. (For more information, please see "using copyrighted works from others" if you are not the copyright holder of this material, or "donating copyrighted materials" if you are.)

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Treatment Section
Japan still has sanatoriums (although Japan's sanatoriums no longer have active leprosy cases, nor are survivors held in them by law)

This doesn't seem relevant to a leprosy article if the sanatoriums don't have active leprosy cases. 57.135.233.22 (talk) 22:33, 21 November 2023 (UTC)

Hansen's disease in popular culture
https://somethingpositive.net/comic/fun-armadillo-facts/ Eastmain (talk • contribs) 16:54, 19 January 2024 (UTC)