Abstract
Leprosy, a chronic mycobacterial infection caused by Mycobacterium leprae, is an infectious disease that has ravaged human societies throughout millennia. This ancestral pathogen causes disfiguring cutaneous lesions, peripheral nerve injury, ostearticular deformity, limb loss and dysfunction, blindness and stigma. Despite ongoing efforts in interrupting leprosy transmission, large numbers of new cases are persistently identified in many endemic areas. Moreover, at the time of diagnosis, most newly identified cases have considerable neurologic disability. Many challenges remain in our understanding of the epidemiology of leprosy including: (a) the precise mode and route of transmission; (b) the socioeconomic, environmental, and behavioral factors that promote its transmission; and (c) strategies to achieve early diagnosis and prevent neurologic impairment to reduce the large burden of disability among newly identified cases; and among those who endure long-term disability in spite of completing multidrug therapy.
Highlights
Leprosy is a chronic mycobacterial infection caused by Mycobacterium leprae leading to a plethora of clinical manifestations ranging from cutaneous manifestations to disfigurement, deformity, stigma, and disability
There are two different ways that M. ulcerans persists in the environment and infect aquatic animals
M. canettii the ancestor of M. tuberculosis complex (MTC) was probably transmitted by an unidenti‐ fied ancestral vector prior to the Neolithic revolution (>12,000 years ago)d
Summary
Leprosy is a chronic mycobacterial infection caused by Mycobacterium leprae leading to a plethora of clinical manifestations ranging from cutaneous manifestations to disfigurement, deformity, stigma, and disability (neurologic and blindness). Events indicate the crucial role of humans as reservoirs of disease and potentially transmitting to their close contacts, it is feasible that nasal discharges or cutaneous lesions of populations migrating into previously leprosyfree biotopes may have caused a spillover of M. leprae into environmental niches with optimal biotic and abiotic factors that subsequently amplified the cycle of transmission of leprosy. 27 years after Hansen’s description of M. leprae, Sand proposed that the transmission of leprosy between humans takes place indirectly His findings were the result of analyzing 1221 patients in the Norwegian leprosarium of Reitgjaerdet in whom the transmission within household was relatively low and most cases occurred in men who had more contact with environmental sources. Environmental factors such as climate, type of soil and water, environmental degree of acidity [20], etc.; along
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
