Since ancient times, the disease we call leprosy has terrorized man. Aside from what it did to a person’s body, a person with leprosy was forced to live away from other people. No one wanted to come near him or have him around; a leper had to spend the rest of his life alone.

Today we know much more about leprosy and treat this disease differently. Leprosy is an infectious or contagious disease which affects the skin or the nerves, or both. The bacteria that cause the infection were discovered by a Norwegian named Hansen, so leprosy is also known as Hansen’s Disease.

Despite what was believed for hundreds of years, the leprosy germs are not highly contagious. Just how infection takes place, we don’t know. But the germs most often enter and remain (at first) in the skin. If the body resistance is high, hard nodules or lumps form slowly. The skin nodules often become very heavy around the forehead, nose, ears, and lips, and this is what gives a person with leprosy a coarse appearance.

When his nerves are infected, a person loses the sensation of feeling. This is why a leper can injure himself very easily, even burn and cut himself without knowing it. The muscles become almost useless, which may cause the hands and feet to look like claws. In time, the bones of the hands and feet disappear.

Leprosy is found all over the world, but it is most common in the tropics, northern Africa, China, and India. Strangely enough, it may be found in the United States, too, chiefly in the South.

Now that doctors have found that leprosy is not highly contagious, many people with this disease are treated in their own homes, instead of being sent away. Some of the antibiotic drugs that have been developed stop the progress of the disease, and some people have been completely cured by them.