Can anyone shed some light on this question? Thanks
The answer is yes, especially in Asia and Africa. Enough light for ya?
A tiny bit more light: it tends to go by the name ‘Hansen’s disease’ these days…guess they figured that sounded a little nicer.
Also, it is generally conceded that what is called “leprosy” in the Bible was usually NOT what is called leprosy today. The symptoms just don’t match up well. Modern translations of the Bible tend to use a term such as “scale disease” or “scaly skin” rather than “leprosy.”
My understanding is that antibiotics are an effective treatment for leprosy.
Like small pox, leprosy is on the way out from what I understand. Believe it or not, they have had great success treating it with thalidomide…the nightmare drug of the 50s and 60s. You may recall this was the drug they had given to thousands of pregnant women that was tauted as the cure for morning sickness. Well, yes, except that it caused malformed, shortened limbs in all the children. It’s for reasons such as this that the FDA is so strict with drugs today. I still see the grown versions of these children in Tijuana begging on street corners, which is pretty sad.
Apparently though, the drug does kill leprosy…just make sure you aren’t a PREGNANT leper. It’s my understanding that they hope to completely iradicate the disease by 2005. I know I read that somewhere though I profess I don’t know the site offhand to backup my statements.
What other mammal can contract Hansen’s disease? (Hansen’s being the preferred nomenclature of this entity. Named for Gerhard Hansen who discovered the bacillus in 1874)
A good historical site here:http://www.geocities.com/HotSprings/2615/leprosy.html
TheGerm
Eleven years ago, when I was living in Israel, I saw an actual, honest-to-goodness leper.
He was begging, and asked for a half-shekel. I was feeling generous, and gave him a whole shekel. So he asked for a second.
I said something rude and walked off.
It wasn’t until shortly after that I realised what the white patches on his arms and face and his (slightly) protruding brow ridge meant. It kind of gave me the shivers.
Armadillos, since I heard that it has kept me from petting the little critters.
Stress induced psoriasis? So that’s why a few words by a wandering rabbi was sufficient to cure it. 
As is usually the case, we can turn to the master for enlightenment, even in the case of armadillos and leprosy.
blessedwolf: Are you sure he wasn’t an ex-leper?
Also, correct me if I’m wrong, but I am given to understand that leprosy is one of the least contaigous diseases out there.
As I recall there are different strains of leprosy with the more common ‘dry’ version (non-contagious) and a ‘wet’ version that is semi-contagious (i.e. don’t french-kiss these lepers) 
There are still a lot of people who suffer from leprocy in Nepal, particularly in the remote regions.
While I would love to beieve that this disease could be wiped out by 2005, I don’t think that will be possible. Even if a drug with a 100% cure rate were discovered, there are many people who live in extremely remote regions of the Third World who have no access to medical care. Even if these people somehow heard about a cure (a difficult thing with no TV, radio, newspaper, road into your village), where would they go to get it? And how would they get there? And how would they pay for the drug?
finding a cure is, sadly, only one part of the solution.
I just finshed watching a show on the Discovery Health Channel about leprosy. Among other things, they indictaed it is not curable, but it is treatable (one of the reasons it is not treatable is that researchers have not been able to cultivate the bacteria in the lab. They also really don’t know the mechanism by which the drugs which do help, work). The bacteria that cause it are also very similar to those which cause tuberculosis (odd, perhaps, since TB is highly contagious, and leprosy is not - it was mentioned that perhaps 95% of the population is actually immune to the disease), so often the two are studied in tandem.
Oops…I meant “one of the reasons it is not curable…”
From the Master’s column, I see that I can resume petting armadillos but I have to be careful of armadillo snot.
(to be sung to the tune of “Yesterday”)
Leprosy.
All my skin is falling off of me.
I’m not half the man I used to be.
Oh why do I have leprosy?
Suddenly,
I am hated by society.
Now I’m stuck in this community.
Oh, why do I have leprosy?
What did the leper say to the prostitute?