LOS ANGELES--with some genetic research, scientists have rights a likely culprit in the spread of leprosy in the South of the United States: nine-banded Armadillo.
DNA tests show a match in the strain of leprosy among some patients and these prehistoric creatures for research - a scientific connection was suspected but until now could not identify.
"Now, we have the link," said James Krahenbuhl, who runs a program of leprosy of Government that led the new study.
Only about 150 cases of leprosy occur each year in the United States, mainly among travellers in places like the India, the Brazil and Angola where it is more common. The risk of contracting leprosy of an Armadillo is low because most people which is presentations will fall ill with the ancient plague, known as Hansen's disease medically and curable treatment so quickly.
Armadillos are mammals with very few bacteria that cause disease sometimes disfiguring, appearing first as a unusual lumpy skin lesion.
Researchers at programs in Baton Rouge, Louisiana) National Hansen's disease, has led an international team of scientists who published their results in New England Journal of Medicine Thursday. They believe that it requires frequent handling of armadillos or eat their meat for leprosy to spread.
DNA samples were taken from 33 wild armadillos in Arkansas, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, where they are sometimes called "hillbilly humps" because they are often crushed by cars.
Scientists also took some skin biopsies of 50 patients with leprosy being treated at a clinic in Baton Rouge. Three-quarters had never been foreign exposure, but lived in the southern States, where they could have been exposed to and armadillos.
An analysis found that samples of patients and armadillos were genetically similar to each other and were different strains of leprosy found elsewhere in the world. The single strain was found in 28 armadillos and 25 patients.
15 Patients for which researchers had information, seven said they had no contact with the armadillos. eight said that they did, including one who systematically hunted and ate the.
While labour document not for a direct transmission from animal to human, "the evidence is pretty convincing that sometimes,", said Dr. Brian Currie, an expert in infectious diseases at the Montefiore Medical Center in New York, which had no role in the study.
Leprosy remains a problem in tropical hot spots in the world with about 250 000 new cases of infection reported each year. As tuberculosis, it can remain dormant for years before attacking the skin and nerves.
While the disease is contagious, it is difficult to catch. People most at risk are family members who are constantly in contact with a person not processed. Leprosy cannot be spread through casual contact such as communication protocol, or sexual intercourse.
The disease has long been poorly understood and those who acquired were often avoided it. Fear of spreading has led some countries to approximately 40 people. False stories on the fingers and toes fall added to stigma.
The disease is curable with rapid treatment of complications before antibiotics in. The drugs usually kill bacteria in the days and make it non-contagious. It takes usually a year or two to completely erase the germ of the body.
Untreated, leprosy can cause nerve damage if serious people to lose feeling in their fingers and toes, leading to the deformation and disability.
While the germ attacks skin, hands and feet of humans, it tends to infect the liver, the spleen and the lymph node of armadillos.
"Let the animals," informed the principal investigator Richard Truman Hansen National disease programs.
"I would not be toying with armadillos,", said Dr. Warwick Britton, of the University of Sydney, Australia, who had no connection with the study.
For Ymelda Beauchamp, how it is infected in decades remains a mystery.
When she was 15 years old, she noticed lumps on his skin and felt numbness in hands and feet. His left hand began levies to the Interior.
After graduating from high school, she decided to ask a former sugar plantation Carville (Louisiana), which has been transformed into a clinic for patients with leprosy treatment. He y once when the pain was so excruciating, she said that she did not want to wake up.
Today, the 59 year-old Beauchamp is free from disease and works as a defender with the Missions of American leprosy, a group of Christian who contributed to funding the study with other groups in support of leprosy and the National Institutes of Health.
Still, it has no feeling in his hands and his feet and has be careful do not burn or cut itself in baking.
"It is not difficult, but it is not easy," said. "You you get enough for it."
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