Leprosy

Leprosy is an infectious disease that causes severe, disfiguring skin sores and nerve damage  in the arms and legs. The disease has been around since ancient times, often surrounded by terrifying, negative stigmas and tales of leprosy patients being shunned as outcasts. Outbreaks of leprosy have affected, and panicked, people on every continent. The oldest civilizations of China, Egypt, and India feared leprosy was an incurable, mutilating, and contagious disease.

However, leprosy is actually not that contagious. 

Causes Leprosy

Leprosy is caused by a slow-growing type of bacteria called Mycobacterium leprae (M. leprae). Leprosy is also known as Hansen's disease, after the scientist who discovered M. leprae in 1873.

Symptoms of Leprosy

Leprosy primarily affects the skin and the nerves outside the brean and spinal cord, called the peripheral nerves. It may also strike the eyes and the thin tissue lining the inside of the nose.

The main symptom of leprosy is disfiguring skin sores, lumps, or bumps that do not go away after several weeks or months. The skin sores are pale-colored

Nerve damage can lead to:

Loss of feeling in the arms and legs

Muscle weakness