What is Leprosy?

What is leprosy?

Leprosy, also known as Hansen’s Disease, is a mildly infectious disease. Around 200,000 people across the world are diagnosed with leprosy each year. Leprosy is curable and, if treated quickly, will cause no long-term consequences for a person.

what causes leprosy?

Leprosy (Hansen’s Disease) is caused by a bacillus (germ) called Mycobacterium leprae (M. leprae). It mainly affects the skin, nerves and eyes.
Leprosy is not a highly contagious disease. The incubation period (the period between infection and seeing symptoms) is long – five years on average, but can be anything between one year and 20 years. During the incubation period, an infected person does not have any visible signs or symptoms but may already be infectious.
Anyone can be diagnosed with leprosy, but thankfully most of us have immune systems that are strong enough to not develop it even if we live in a country where there is leprosy.

What are the signs and symptoms of leprosy?

Skin patches which are a different colour from the rest of your skin (in brown/black skin the patches are lighter; in light-skinned people the patches are reddish in colour) and with no feeling (meaning that it is numb and has no sensation)
Loss of feeling or numbness of the hands and feet.
Muscle weakness or paralysis – struggling to hold things in your hands, unable to lift your foot up so that your toes are pointing upwards; unable to close your eyes,

How do we defeat leprosy?

The key to defeating leprosy is to find, diagnose, and treat all cases of leprosy. Treatment is free and effective, so anyone who thinks they may have symptoms of leprosy should talk to a healthcare worker and receive treatment. Early treatment prevents the development of leprosy-related disabilities and stops the spread of the disease, as patients are no longer infectious after 72 hours of Multi-Drug Therapy treatment.
We believe we can end the transmission of leprosy by 2035 through finding and treating all cases of leprosy.

What makes leprosy - a critical disease?

The late diagnosis and untreated leprosy are the core cause of the spread.

Let's learn more about leprosy

The lack of awareness of leprosy is the cre reason why countries like Sri Lanka can not eliminate the disease even after years past. Every year more than 1500 cases are recorded and most of the are from northern, eastern, north central and western provinces.