Compared to other parts of Florida, Brevard County has a biblical incidence of leprosy.
Nearly half of all leprosy cases in the state over the past decade occurred in Brevard, with 85 people contracting the disfiguring disease between 2012 and 2021, according to data from the Florida Department of Health. As the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) raged in 2020, 20 cases of leprosy surged in Brevard, accounting for three-quarters of the state’s 27 leprosy cases that year.
Leprosy is still very rare in the United States and in Brevard as well. The small but still increasing numbers baffle scientists.
Researchers now warn that Florida, especially in central Florida, has a growing number of leprosy patients who “lack traditional risk factors,” such as exposure to armadillos and long trips outside the United States. This trend, combined with a decline in the number of foreign-born residents with leprosy, adds to the evidence that leprosy is endemic in Florida and the southeastern United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recent report. concluded in its report. emerging infectious disease.
Leprosy, also called leprosy, is caused by a slow-growing genus of bacteria called Mycobacterium leprae. Approximately 95% of people are genetically resistant to this pathogen, making it difficult to become infected.
The disease is believed to be transmitted from person to person primarily through direct contact and infectious aerosols. Armadillos also carry pathogens and can infect humans. In the old days, leprosy patients were often exiled to “leprosy colonies”. Currently, the disease is treated with antibiotics.
It primarily infects the skin and skin nerves, according to the Florida Department of Health. However, it can cause infections in other parts of the body, such as the lining of the nasal airways.
Scientists are baffled as to why leprosy is so common on the Space Coast than elsewhere in Florida.
The Bible points to punishment for sin and uncleanness, but scientists point to sufficient habitat to facilitate more armadillos and the leprosy agents they carry, perhaps due to climate change. I’m assuming it’s been reinforced. Or maybe Brevard has more gardening and landscaping. Or maybe leprosy is just getting the attention of the local dermatologist. No one knows why, but all we know is that things are getting worse.
“Our data suggest that health problems are probably on the rise,” says Jeffrey Greenwald, a dermatologist and volunteer faculty member at the University of Central Florida School of Medicine. “I don’t think this is just people reporting more.”
For whatever reason, central Florida has become the epicenter of leprosy. The area accounted for 81 percent of reported cases in Florida and nearly one-fifth of all reported cases nationally, according to a study from the University of Kansas City Graduate Medical Education, Advanced Dermatology and Aesthetic Surgery Consortium at Orlando. They write: CDC of the Month Journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.
Although leprosy in the United States has historically affected people who migrated from leprosy-endemic areas, the authors found that about 34% of new cases between 2015 and 2020 acquired the disease locally. did. And several cases in central Florida, including the case of a 54-year-old central Florida man highlighted by the researchers, show clear evidence of exposure to armadillos and other traditionally known risk factors. It has not been.
He sought treatment at a dermatology clinic for a painful, progressive rash with lesions on his torso and face. “He denied any domestic or international travel, contact with armadillos, long-term contact with immigrants from leprosy-endemic countries, or any relationship with anyone known to have leprosy,” the authors said. writing.
The patient, a lifelong Central Florida resident, was a landscaper who spent a lot of time outdoors, and the environmental presence of leprosy-causing pathogens in the area, including soil that may contain armadillo excrement, is possible. showing gender.
Traditional risk factors for leprosy include travel to countries where leprosy is endemic, direct contact with armadillos, or close contact with an already infected person. “The absence of traditional risk factors for many of Florida’s recent leprosy cases, combined with the high percentage of residents who, like ours, spend a lot of time outdoors, creates a potential Investigation of environmental reservoirs as sources of infection is supported,” the authors write.
The authors point out that international migrants in North America increased from 27.6 million in 1990 to 58.7 million in 2020. This may be due to the association of
But the report to the CDC also shows that while the incidence of leprosy has increased, the rate of new diagnoses among people born outside the United States has declined since 2002.
The authors called for further research in Florida on how humans spread leprosy to each other and recommended that travel to Florida be considered when conducting leprosy contact tracing in any state.
How common is leprosy?
Leprosy is historically rare in the United States, with cases peaking around 1983 and declining significantly between the 1980s and 2000, the authors note. Since then, cases have risen steadily, more than doubling over the past decade in the southeastern states.
According to the National Leprosy Program, 159 new cases were reported in the United States in 2020. Florida was one of the top reporting states, with 27 confirmed cases, 20 of them in Brevard County, according to state health department data.
Susan Hammerling-Hodgers, a certified Physician Assistant and Physician Assistant Research Master at Brevard Skin and Cancer, estimates that she has treated about a dozen leprosy patients in the county over the past 22 years. They weren’t all gardeners, she said. Some had cancer and were immunosuppressed.
“A wide variety of people have had this diagnosis,” Hammerling-Hodgers said. “Others were perfectly healthy and infected.”
Greenwald’s patients include a hunter who ate armadillo meat and a UPS driver who ran over an armadillo and cleaned it from under the hood of his car. The majority were avid gardeners.
“There’s a lot of evidence that points to the respiratory system,” Greenwald said.
With human and armadillo numbers on the rise, the scourge of leprosy in Florida and Brevard is unlikely to go away anytime soon, Greenwald said, requiring public and physician attention.
“This is becoming a real problem,” said Greenwald, who recently had a patient who had to have a toe amputated because of leprosy. “I think this is really a health issue. I think the answer is the education of doctors.”
Where can I learn more about leprosy?
of Florida Department of Health Information about leprosy can be found here: https://www.floridahealth.gov/diseases-and-conditions/leprosy/index.html
The CDC has a page on leprosy. https://www.cdc.gov/Leprosy/
FWC is Armadillo page.
According to the FDOH, early signs of leprosy include pale or slightly red areas on the body and a rash, often accompanied by loss of sensation in the affected area.
Other symptoms include:
- loss of sensation in hands and feet
- The affected skin becomes dry, hard, and sometimes painful
- Thinning eyebrows and eyelashes (if facial)
- Nasal congestion is sometimes reported
Left untreated, the disorder can also cause weakness in the hands and feet.
How is leprosy transmitted or developed?
Because leprosy is such a rare disease, we don’t fully understand how it is transmitted. Scientists know that the virus is not transmitted through casual contact, sexual transmission, or mother-to-fetus transmission. A popular theory is that high levels of the bacteria develop in a person’s nose and are spread to other non-immune people through long-term contact.
Exposure to armadillo-contaminated soil can also transmit disease, so health officials recommend wearing gloves and a mask while gardening and washing well afterwards.
Source: Florida Department of Health; Florida Today Survey
