Leprosy Sufferers Research Articles

1 The Chemotherapy of Leprosy

Publisher Summary This chapter presents a critical assessment of the chemotherapy of leprosy referring to both ancient and more recent drugs. In the light of the growing understanding of Mycobacterium leprae and the disease of leprosy, suggestions have been made about possible ways new drugs might be developed. The chapter summarizes the major features of the disease (leprosy). Leprosy is commonly regarded as one of the oldest diseases known to mankind. The treatment of leprosy sufferers has long been the object of certain missionary, charitable and voluntary societies. It is a disease of skin and peripheral nerves caused by Mycobucterium leprue. The major features of M . leprue are summarized in this chapter. A variety of second line drugs are recognized as useful therapeutic agents, including thiambutosine, prothionamide, ethionamide, and thiacetazone.

Hansen's disease in the United States

This article offers a general overview of Hansen's Disease (leprosy) and examines in some detail the spatial characteristics and demographic profiles of known sufferers. Over the years the pejorative labels attached to the disease and the societal and psychological attitudes which produce and accompany them have stigmatized leprosy sufferers. Unfortunately this stigma has often pre-empted rational understanding and treatment. Contrary to popular belief, leprosy, caused by the bacteriological agent Mycobacterium leprae, is relatively non-contagious and can be rendered completely non-contagious by chemotherapy. Incidence rates in the United States are extremely low (0.08 per 100,000 in 1979), but have shown a slight if erratic increase since 1942. Most of this can be attributed to increases in the number of foreign born cases; a result of immigration from areas of higher incidence (e.g. Southeast Asia, Latin America). Six states, California, Texas, Hawaii, New York, Florida, and Louisiana accounted for over 80% of the 1432 cases reported in the United States between 1967 and 1976.

A Feminist Perspective on Some Ethical Issues in Population Programs

Previous articleNext article FreeViewpointA Feminist Perspective on Some Ethical Issues in Population ProgramsSandra Schwartz TangriSandra Schwartz Tangri Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Signs Volume 1, Number 4Summer, 1976 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/493307 Views: 21Total views on this site Citations: 6Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1976 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Wade M Cole, Claudia Geist Conceiving of Contraception: World Society, Cultural Resistance, and Contraceptive Use, 1970–2012, Social Forces 99, no.44 (Aug 2020): 1394–1431.https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/soaa077Henrik Andersson, Eric Brandstedt, Olle Torpman Review article: the ethics of population policies, Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 29 (Feb 2021): 1–24.https://doi.org/10.1080/13698230.2021.1886714Callie H. Burt Scrutinizing the U.S. Equality Act 2019: A Feminist Examination of Definitional Changes and Sociolegal Ramifications, Feminist Criminology 15, no.44 (Jun 2020): 363–409.https://doi.org/10.1177/1557085120918667Jane Buckingham Patient Welfare vs. the Health of the Nation: Governmentality and Sterilisation of Leprosy Sufferers in Early Post-Colonial India, Social History of Medicine 19, no.33 (Dec 2006): 483–499.https://doi.org/10.1093/shm/hkl046Jane Humphries The socio-economic determinants of recourse to legal abortion, Women's Studies International Quarterly 3, no.44 (Jan 1980): 377–393.https://doi.org/10.1016/S0148-0685(80)91157-4Martha T. Shuch Mednick PSYCHOLOGY OF WOMEN: RESEARCH ISSUES AND TRENDS, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 309, no.1 Psychology1 Psychology (Sep 1978): 77–92.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-6632.1978.tb29442.x

Some practical problems of the epidemiology of leprosy in the Indian context.

Leprosy constitutes a great and growing problem in India. The exact number of sufferers is unknown, but each successive estimate exceeds the figure it replaces; 3.1 million is the latest, and this must be multiplied by an undetermined factor to indicate the real dimensions of the endemic. A suspected prevalence rate of 8.3/1000 in the population at risk — 372 million — and a far from negligible rate in the remaining 200 million, adds up to a public health problem of vast size — and great complexity. Moreover, despite the praiseworthy and considerable efforts of government and voluntary agencies and the undoubted success of medical treatment of the individual, the leprosy endemic shows no signs of abating. Given the present rate of population increase, the present attack rates of leprosy and the duration of the disease, India might well have to deal in 20 years’ time with double the present number of leprosy sufferers.

Science Cleanses the Leper

Science is bringing leprosy patients out of the caves of superstition. The work is slow. Because of long-ingrained misconceptions born of ages during which leprosy made itself evident only when fingers and toes dropped off, many people still recoil in horror when the disease is mentioned. The ancient Chinese and Egyptians isolated lepers or killed them. Biblical times were almost as rough. was not until the early 1940s drugs were available to treat the disease. More than a year ago, early in 1966, a famous husband and wife team, Drs. Paul and Margaret Brand, who had spent 17 years in Vellore, India, treating leprosy, came to the Public Health Service leprosarium at Carville, La. He is an orthopedic surgeon and chief of rehabilitation; she is an ophthalmologist and chief of eye service. The shift from India to the U.S. has made them sharply aware of apparent genetic effects on the susceptibility to leprosy. White Caucasians are harder to treat for several reasons, Dr. Margaret Brand reports. No one knows whether there is, in fact, a genetic reason for American Caucasians to contract the more serious type of leprosy, called lepromatous, more often than Indian Caucasians do, but it happens. Racial reactions differ throughout the world. Hawaiians are estimated to be 70 times more susceptible to the disease than white Caucasians in Hawaii. And Chinese get the lepromatous kind more easily than Africans or other darker-skinned races. It is disgraceful, Dr. Paul says, that only one-fourth of the estimated 10 million to 20 million leprosy sufferers of the world are being treated, when two or three dollars a year will buy enough DDS (diamino-diphenylsulfone) for a leprosy patient. For $10 a year, a leprosy patient can be made infectiously negative. You get a big return for your money. Leprosy is not simply a tropical disease. occurs as far north as Iceland, is known in Korea and other nontropical countries, in spite of the fact it is most widespread in Asia and Africa. . : . ....... :i,i i 'i . .......: . i' .A

REHABILITATION OF LEPROSY SUFFERERS

Medical Journal of AustraliaVolume 1, Issue 5 p. 179-179 Current Comment REHABILITATION OF LEPROSY SUFFERERS First published: 01 February 1961 https://doi.org/10.5694/j.1326-5377.1961.tb82353.xAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume1, Issue5February 1961Pages 179-179 RelatedInformation