LEPROSY

Leprosy is an infectious disease that causes severe, disfiguring skin sores and nerve damage in the arms, legs, and skin areas around your body. The main symptom of leprosy is disfiguring skin sores, lumps, or bumps that don’t go away after several weeks or months. The skin sores are pale-colored. Nerve damage can lead to loss of feeling in the arms and legs and muscle weakness.

CURRENT SITUATION

Hansen’s disease or leprosy is treated with a combination of antibiotics. Typically, 2 or 3 antibiotics are used at the same time. These are dapsone with rifampicin, and clofazimine is added for some types of the disease. Treatment usually lasts between one to two years. The illness can be cured if treatment is completed as prescribed.

If left untreated, the nerve damage can result in paralysis and crippling of hands and feet. In very advanced cases, the person may have multiple injuries due to lack of sensation, and eventually the body may reabsorb the affected digits over time, resulting in the apparent loss of toes and fingers. Corneal ulcers or blindness can also occur if facial nerves are affected, due to loss of sensation of the cornea (outside) of the eye.

Antibiotics used during the treatment will kill the bacteria that cause leprosy. But while the treatment can cure the disease and prevent it from getting worse, it does not reverse nerve damage or physical disfiguration that may have occurred before the diagnosis.

Read more about leprosy and its treatment here.

CASE STUDIES : LEPROSY

CASE STUDY 1: Suffering from leprosy since last 20 years, had non healing, fungating tumor like growth with ulcers and pus discharge from both legs (no sensation in extremities). Traditional treatments were ineffective.