Leprosy, a rare flesh-devouring infection, has made a shocking comeback in Florida where one county reported 13 percent of all cases for the entire United States.
Experts on the illness, now known as Hansen’s disease, have zeroed in on local infected armadillos as one well-known vector spreading the bacteria — which can cause nerve damage and disfigurement in humans, if left untreated.
Armadillos across the western hemisphere have become natural carriers of the bacteria responsible leprosy, ever since the disease was first introduced by European colonists centuries ago.
Across the US, cases of leprosy had dropped to just 77 infections in the year 2000, thanks to a national campaign, but hundreds of new cases are now emerging in Florida with Brevard County east of Orlando at the outbreak’s epicenter.
Medical experts investigating Florida’s leprosy outbreaks believe ‘something new is going on’ – noting that still-unknown factors are helping spread the disease -but they are cautioning residents to avoid contact with armadillos (pictured) which are known to harbor the illness
A team of medical experts investigating these cases believes ‘something new is going on’ — noting that still-unknown factors are helping spread the disease — but they are still cautioning residents to avoid contact with armadillos.
‘Floridians ought to be warned to keep their hands off armadillos,’ as columnist Frank Cerabino wrote for the Palm Beach Post this week, adding: ‘Don’t eat the armadillos.’
‘We kill a lot of armadillos in Florida,’ Cerabino told his readers.
‘When threatened, like from the roar of an approaching car, armadillos jump four feet in the air,’ he noted, ‘right into the grill of the vehicle.’
‘And it’s not hard to go online and find YouTube videos that show the steps for making armadillo chili,’ at least, according to Cerabino.
Above, a nine-banded armadillo rescued by Second Chances Wildlife Center in western Kentucky, many miles away from Florida
Commonly referred to in the Bible, leprosy has long been thought to have been eliminated as effective treatments have long been available.
Contrary to popular belief, leprosy does not cause a patient’s arms and legs to fall off, or other dire necrotizing issues.
While the disease mainly affects the skin, it can cause hands and fingers to shrink.
A group of 10 scientists teamed up in 2023 to investigate the causes behind Florida’s troubled 21st century history with this age-old scourge and now believe that contact with infected armadillos can only account for a fraction of the state’s new cases.
‘Some people who are infected have little to no exposure to the armadillo,’ Dr Norman Beatty, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Florida, told the Tampa Bay Times.
‘There is likely another source of transmission in the environment,’ Dr Beatty said.
Dr Beatty, his University of Florida colleague, veterinarian Dr Juan Campos Krauer, and researchers from both Colorado State University and Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, have come to suspect that insects, like ticks, might play a role.
Early lab data has suggested that the blood-sucking parasites might be spreading infected blood harboring the bacteria that causes leprosy, Mycobacterium leprae.
One other current theory blames amoebas, single-celled organisms which can live in the soil and can host the disease.
In a fact, armadillos enjoy foraging for earthworms in yards and gardens, which the researchers have suspected might lead to these hard-shelled animals shedding leprosy bacteria as they hunt for literal grub to eat.
A key reason for these new theories was that another traditional explanation has also proven unlikely: leprosy acquired abroad while travelling.
The above graph shows leprosy cases in the US by year over the last decade. The cases have trended upward since a national low of just 77 cases in the year 2000
In the first decade of the 21st century, Florida’s uptick in cases corresponded largely to people who had spent time overseas, according to Florida Department of Health data analyzed by the Tampa Bay Times.
But as local cases inflated from 67 cases to 176 cases in state from 2010 to 2020, Brevard County emerged as an unexpected hot zone.
Brevard reported 85 for those 176 cases in that decade, after reporting just five cases the decade prior — and at least 25 percent were people who had not left the state.
The small county, home to just 630,700 people, logged nearly half of all Florida infections during that time.
Leprosy strikes in record numbers in India, Brazil, and Indonesia which reported over 135,000 infections combined in 2022 alone, but too many of the infected locals in Brevard were coming in with cases, but had not traveled to those or other nations.
They had not even been in close contact with any recorded local leprosy patients.
‘Nothing was adding up,’ as one former Brevard county health department official, epidemiologist Barry Inman, put it.
A 54-year-old man in central Florida (above) was diagnosed with lepromatous leprosy in 2022. He sought treatment at a dermatology clinic for a painful and progressive rash
While other states are contributing to America’s rising number of leprosy cases, including California, Louisiana, Hawaii, New York and Texas, Florida appears to be the one most concerning to federal regulators.
The CDC has recommended that travel to Florida should be considered when conducting leprosy contact tracing in any state, in fact.
In Florida too, leprosy is a reportable disease where it is monitored primarily through passive surveillance.
Health practitioners are required to report leprosy in the state by the next business day, according to the Florida Department of Health and this contact tracing is critical to identifying sources and reducing transmission.
Fortunately, about 95 percent of people have a natural immunity to the bacteria that causes leprosy, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The first signs of the disease in humans include ulcers, muscle weakness and eye problems.
But, if left untreated leprosy can later cause growths and painful claw-like hands.
In contrast to images of leper colonies from the Bible, current forms of the disease are not very contagious if caught early, according to the CDC.
LEPROSY: CAUSE, SYMPTOMS AND TREATMENT
Leprosy is a long-term infectious disease which can result in the inflammation of the nerves, respiratory tract, skin, and eyes. In 2012, the number of chronic cases of leprosy was 189,000, down from some 5.2 million in the 1980s, with India accounting for more than half of all cases (Stock image)
Leprosy is a disease caused by bacteria called Mycobacterium leprae.
The illness is renowned for being extremely slow to develop. The bacteria reproduce slowly and people may not develop symptoms for decades after being exposed.
The average time is around five years, but some people may not develop signs for more than 20 years after coming into contact with the bacteria.
Symptoms of leprosy include patches of discolored skin, numbness, muscle weakness, eye problems, a blocked nose and nosebleeds and ulcers on the soles of the feet.
More than 200,000 people are thought to be diagnosed with the disease worldwide, with 60 per cent of cases in India.
Brazil and Indonesia also have relatively large numbers of infections, while the rest are scattered around the world.
Leprosy was historically thought to have been a contagious skin disease which led to societies banishing victims to colonies, but scientists now believe the illness spreads slowly if people inhale bacteria.
The illness can caused progressive nerve damage, weakness and the breakdown of limbs, flesh and facial features if left untreated, but antibiotics can now clear it up.
Source: World Health Organization and Medical News Today
