Leprosy Ll

How an article about a contagious body rash changed the history of Leprosy

Leprosy is a serious disease caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium leprae. It manifests itself as a specific skin rash; in severe cases, it leads to immobility and falling into a coma. In the past, this disease was known as "Loberia" or "leprosy". Today it is only reminiscent of multiple skin lesions, giving off cold and resulting from many infections. Is this real leprosy? In the 20th century, research into this disease led to very important conclusions, but even more questions arose.

Let's start from antiquity: before the scientist Paul Ehrlich called the disease contagious, it had already been studied by the Medici and Lucretius Carus. It is known for certain that the symptoms of leprosy manifested themselves in the empire for many centuries: from ancient Egyptian mummies to the Renaissance. One theory links leprosy to the movement of “clowns,” people with various physical disabilities. They arose either after uncontrolled intake of antimony, copper, lead, mercury, arsenic - even after drinking water with these substances. Another speaks of an outbreak after the appearance of Columbus in the Philippines. And one more theory related to environmental violations