The leprosy is a chronic infectious disease caused by Hansen's bacillus whose scientific name is Mycobacterium leprae. It is characterized by nervous and cutaneous symptoms, with the appearance of spots, tubers and ulcers.
Throughout history, leprosy has been a stigma for those who have suffered it. In ancient times, lepers were excluded from the society and locked in leprosaries; Regardless of the moral issues involved in such imprisonment, today it is known that it was an extreme and unnecessary measure even though, since leprosy is a disease of very low transmissibility when treated correctly.
Above the abusive nature of the old treatments, leprosy shamed its bearers with their terrible mutilations, and condemned them to certain death. The oldest evidence of this disease It dates back at least four millennia, according to the discovery of remains of a young man who seems to have died without receiving any kind of healing. Previously, the skeleton of a victim had been found in Egypt that leprosy had claimed two hundred years BC ...
The leprosaries were extremely deep and wide graves, connected with natural caves in which the sick had to spend 24 hours a day. In these caves their small shelters were armed. When a person contracted leprosy, she was taken to this isolation site, saying goodbye forever to her loved ones, who were responsible for the provision of food.
This was done using a system of gears (similar to an elevator but much more rustic) on which the provisions were raised and lowered, without having to come into direct contact with the infected. It is important to note that admission to these centers was prohibited: they were graves in life, where no treatment was offered, which caused the plague to spread more rapidly and nullified any possibility of Recovery.
Two types of leprosy can be distinguished: tuberculoid leprosy produces spots that become anesthetic, while the lepromatous leprosy It is characterized by large nodules known as lepromas.
Leprosy can lead to the destruction of woven, deformation and mutilation of the patient. There are drugs and corticosteroids for the treatment of the disease, while surgical intervention may be an option to avoid deformities.
The only way to prevent leprosy is to avoid Contact Close physicist with patients who are not being treated. Frequent hand washing is also recommended. It should be noted that affected subjects who are receiving medication do not transmit the disease in the long term.
The first symptom Leprosy usually appear between 4 and 8 years after exposure to the bacteria and include numbness of the limbs, the appearance of nodules, pain in the skin and nasal congestion. Leprosy can be diagnosed from a biopsy .
With respect to your treatment, throughout the history different methods have been tried, ranging from religious practices to the application of ginocandia oil, which began to be used in the early 1900s, through injections, and enjoyed great acceptance for some time. In the late 1930s, medicine began to experiment with the use of dapsone (an antibiotic that is consumed orally and also serves to fight dermatitis); His success was moderate, given the appearance of leprosy strains that resisted him.
It was only since 1980 that the science took great steps in the battle against leprosy, by beginning to treat it by using several medications at once. Currently, it applies dapsone and rifampin simultaneously, in daily doses, with variants that include the interruption of the dapsone before the appearance of fever, in which case it is replaced by clofazimine. It is worth mentioning that it is recommended to maintain such treatment for a minimum of six months and an estimated maximum of two years, depending on the case.
