Armadillos, related human leprosy

There are many anecdotal reports of leprosy in humans who have manipulated, killed or eaten and armadillos.Mammals leathery shell found in 10 statesArmadillos in the South of the United States are the only animals besides humans to carry signs of leprosyEarly of leprosy can be easy for patients and doctors to neglect

Several years of(canstar) - an elderly woman of 81 years, with an elevated spot of dry skin on his arms visited dermatologist Mississippi John Abide, M.D.

Although the injury seemed only slightly abnormal, a series of laboratory tests revealed that it was a symptom of leprosy.

"I thought," leprosy, are you kidding me? "". ", explains Abide, which practice in Greenville. Her surprise was understandable.

Each year nearly 150 people in the United States are infected with leprosy, a bacterial infection that can lead to damage and disfigurement of nerve. In most cases, people are infected after being exposed to the saliva of an infected person, usually on a trip to some parts of the world, such as Africa and Asia where the disease is most widespread.

But the patient of the Abide match this description.

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A new study in the New England Journal of Medicine can provide an explanation for his case: armadillos. Leathery shelled mammals, found in ten States in the American Southeast, are the only animals besides humans known to carry leprosy.

There are many anecdotal reports of leprosy in humans who have manipulated, killed or eaten armadillos, or who may have been indirectly exposed by gardening in the soil where the animals Burrow, as was the case for the ask patient.

But so far, experts have not been able to confirm that armadillos could pass the disease to humans. The study provides the strongest evidence to date. Researchers have analyzed the genomes of cause of leprosy bacteria from seven patients and an Armadillo.

After the identification of specific strains of bacteria, they compared with a broader of infected persons and tattoos across group in the world.

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50 Patients and 33 wild armadillos researchers analyzed and United States, the 25 patients and 28 armadillos share a genetically identical strain of leprosy bacteria. And at least 8 of 25 patients with strain reported contact with armadillos.

"It is difficult to prove specific causation," says Richard Truman, Ph.d., one of the authors of the study and the Chief of the microbiology research program of the disease of Hansen National, Washington, D.C. (leprosy is also known as Hansen's disease).

However, the chance that humans with the armadillo strain specific have been infected by other means, adds, is about 1 in 10 000. Armadillo in the United States population was estimated at 30 to 50 million, and studies suggest that, in some places up to 15% have leprosy.

Infected animals are now concentrated in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas and Alabama, but the population of Armadillo seems to be spread North and East and could cause leprosy with it.

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Truman stated that people in these areas can possibly see a minor increase in risk, but so far leprosy has not been detected in animals on the coast is.

"Leprosy is a rare disease and will remain a rare disease", he said. Doctors should be for signs of the disease, said again, James Krahenbuhl, Ph.d., Director of Hansen National disease program. "Most of the physicians are unaware that leprosy exists even in the United States, and they lack the diagnosis."

Leprosy usually becomes a chronic disease, Krahenbuhl said, but it can be corrected if it is treated with drugs multiple in the early stages, where the disease has only caused skin lesions. On the left are not treated, it can lead to nerve damage in some patients.

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Respect the suspected new cases of leprosy in the United States are widely, because the first signs may be easy for patients and doctors to neglect until decades later, when more serious symptoms.

"It kind of makes me Stevie wonder, more subtle, as is the case, if I am missing something," he said. It is used up to 30% of the residents in the rural area have been in contact with armadillos, Abide estimates.

He urges his patients not to touch, manipulate or eat animals and to guide memories made from carcasses of Armadillo, which are very popular in Texas. The new study should help to raise awareness, he said.

When he tells his patients armadillos cause leprosy, he explained, "they type of look like I'm crazy.".