Talk:Leprosy

Types of Leprosy

Just thought there should be information on Lepromatus Leprosy and Tuberculoid Leprosy, both of which are caused by Mycobacterium Leprae, but produce different symptoms depending on the host immune response. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 147.188.113.35 (talk) 11:33, 22 November 2007 (UTC)

Incidence

I have moved and incorporated most of this text to various places in the "Transmission" section, where it is more appropriate than in its present "Incidence" section.--WHO Leprosy 21:27, 24 March 2007 (UTC)

Hansen's Disease (HD) is transmitted by Mycobacterium leprae. The bacillus M. leprae has never been grown in the laboratory. As a result it has been difficult to study the exact mechanisms of pathogenesis. However, the CDC notes the following assertion about the transmission of the disease: "Although the mode of transmission of Hansen's disease remains uncertain, most investigators think that M. leprae is usually spread from person to person in respiratory droplets."

I think it's worth pointing out that the 'inability to grow M. leprae in the laboratory' means inability to grow it in standard culture media 'in vitro' - microbiologists studying the pathogen can do so using 'in vivo' cultures (often tissue samples from armadilloes, whose body temperature runs low enough for the bacterium to thrive in soft organs). 210.84.16.35 03:44, 10 May 2007 (UTC)

"Wet Leprosy", "Dry Leprosy"

I recently heard a reference to "wet leprosy" on the radio, stating it is the more contagious form of leprosy. I can't find any real references for "wet leprosy", but I found a definition for "dry leprosy" here. Can someone clarify this? --RevWaldo 19:01, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

Modern picture?

Shouldn't this article include a more up-to-date picture? I would suggest Leprosy thigh demarcated cutaneous lesions.jpg. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Feedmecereal (talk • contribs) 18:45, 16 August 2007

Excellent suggestion - I've added the image to the article. -- MarcoTolo 00:49, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

M. leprae genome section moved

I've moved the genome section to the M. leprae article - while well-written, it has little to do with leprosy specifically. -- MarcoTolo 00:55, 20 August 2007 (UTC)

'Simple English' version of the Leprosy entry has unexplained pictures.

I read through the article on leprosy, and also chose Simple English from the language list, and read that article too. The 'Simple English' version has two additional photographs, 'feet deformed by leprosy' and 'skull deformed by leprosy'. The pictures imply that Hansen's disease can cause abnormal bone growth, but neither the simple or full article mention this. It seems that either the pictures are not about leprosy, or that this aspect of leprosy was not described.

72.2.9.14 18:27, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

Leprosy Summary

Leprosy Humanity came across leprosy (also known as the Hansen’s disease) around 300 BC. There are two classifications of leprosy known as tuberculoid leprosy and borderline leprosy. They affect the skin and nerves. Large patches form on your skin and you lose your senses or they can be weakened. Your environment has a lot to do with the cause of leprosy. Being in contact with contaminated water, such as drinking it or showering with it, an insufficient diet, or any other type of diseases can result in leprosy. Colonies in India and Vietnam still come across leprosy. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.109.235.81 (talk) 23:37, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

Leprosy and America

Just passing through on a day where an outbreak just occured in my state AND city, Springdale, AR, which just now had an outbreak of leprosy. maybe we could put in a section about Leprosy in todays world? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.252.76.200 (talk) 15:13, 8 February 2008 (UTC)

Leprosy and the Armadillo Zoonosis

While this is a very well written and organized article, it hardly does justice to the now well-established reality of leprosy as a very limited but world-wide zoonosis, which occasionally spreads to humans. The ground-breaking work of Dr. Elizabeth Storrs in the study of m. leprae in dasypus novemcinctus (9-banded armadillo) should at least be footnoted or referenced. Whether any detail belongs in the main article is, of course, problematic, since this is a topic of continuing controversy in the research community, largely as a result of the highly inappropriate reaction to the original discoveries by the USPHS. References are easily found by Googling (leprosy storrs). Ldmjr (talk) 19:18, 8 February 2008 (UTC)

Hide the picture

It's horrible to see a man affected by leprosy, it may hurt sensible viewers. At least I suggest to hide it some way. Bh3u4m (talk) 23:59, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia is not censored. —SlamDiego_←T 04:16, 10 March 2008 (UTC)

proposal: research relationship of leprosy with th1 and th2 immune response

I went to a lecture that was extremely interesting explaining why some people get leprosy and others don't relating to if their immune system properly makes the correct response : th1 vs th2.

If you want to improve the immunology of the article, this could be researched. Tkjazzer (talk) 06:11, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

characteristics

"Patients with this chronic infectious disease"

i dont beleive it is infectious. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.67.25.73 (talk) 04:58, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

World distribution of leprosy, 2003.

The map labeled "World distribution of leprosy, 2003." does not match the lead in text which says that there are leprosy colonies in Japan, which is listed as no cases on the map. How can you have a colony with no members? For my two cents, I haven't personally heard of any leprosy colonies over here anyway. Nesnad (talk) 15:40, 4 April 2008 (UTC)