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Long Lasting Disease: Leprosy

Pramoda Earla

There are several infectious diseases from ancient times to which people got affected, suffered and died too. Leprosy can be regarded as the most infectious, transmittable and long lasting disease among all infectious diseases. The other name of leprosy is Hansen’s disease which was named after the physician Gerhard Armauer Hansen. The first causative agent of leprosy disease in humans is Mycobacterium leprae (M. Leprae) which has identified by microscopy technique. It is a rod-shaped gram-positive acid fast bacterium. The phenolic glycolipid 1 is the glycolipid material present in cell wall of this bacterium which generally shows immunological specificity in M. leprae. Survival of this acid fast bacterium in the host cell depends on the cell wall structure. Mycobacterium lepromatosis is a newly emerged leprosy-causing organism. It is emerging day by day as one of the major infectious diseases all over the world including developing countries. It is estimated that approximately 90% of the population develop protective immunity towards this disease, and, therefore, do not get sick after getting effected with this leprosy. Genetic and environmental factors are playing vital role in leprosy infection. The main symptoms are skin sores, bumps or lumps that will never go away after several weeks or months and which will become permanent if untreated foe a long time. It will mainly affect skin region. We cannot treat leprosy as a highly infectious disease. It is probably transmitting through droplets from the mouth and nose during close and frequent contacts with untreated patients. These bacteria mainly infect skin macrophages and Schwann cells in peripheral nerves. The involvement of autonomic fibers causes alteration in glandular functions. It will lead to dry mucous membrane and dry skin and which is responsible for the loss of tactile, thermal and pain sensibility. Incubation period of leprosy is usually two to four years with major manifestations. The Semmes-Weinstein technique is a widely used technique to evaluate plantar sensibility. Multi drug therapy (MDT) and early diagnosis are the key elements in eliminating the leprosy disease as a concern of public health. The ultimate aim is the development of a prophylactic vaccine, to protect against both drug-resistant and drug-susceptible strains. However, immunoprophylaxis for the leprosy disease continues to be largely speculative. The research in the area of leprosy remains an active area of scientific research.