File: <leprosy.htm> <Medical Index> <General Index> Site Description Glossary <Navigate
to Home>
LEPROSY (Contact) Please
CLICK on underlined
links for details: Leprosy or
Hansen's Disease is a bacterial disease that affects low numbers of people
worldwide, especially in more humid tropical and subtropical regions. Two species of bacteria are involved: Mycobacterium
leprae and Mycobacterium
lepromatosis. By 2016 it
has been effectively treated by a regime of bactericides for 6 to 12 months,
or until no evidence of the infection exists. A pathway to
the acquisition of Leprosy has been considered vague over the many centuries
that it has plagued mankind. Matheson
(1950) considered the possibility of some fly species being vectors of the
disease, but he emphasized that this means of distribution is probably not
great or has not been fully investigated.
Service (2008) has no mention of the disease in his book Medical Entomology For Students. Nevertheless, Leprosy appears in
unexpected localities periodically, as the 2016 case in the Indian Hills
community of Riverside County, California.
Laboratory transmission of leprosy to sandflies and Triatomidae has
been successful, but natural transmission by such potential vectors is not
yet proven. In North
America armadillos can serve as reservoir hosts. Further
investigation into Leprosy will be pursued forthwith and results recorded in
this section. = = = = = = = = = = = =
= = = = = = = = Key References: <medvet.ref.htm> <Hexapoda> Matheson, R. 1950.
Medical Entomology. Comstock
Publ. Co, Inc. 610 p. Service, M. 2008. Medical
Entomology For Students. Cambridge
Univ. Press. 289 p Legner, E.
F.
1995. Biological control
of Diptera of medical and veterinary importance. J. Vector Ecology 20(1): 59_120. Legner,
E. F. 2000. Biological control of aquatic
Diptera. p. 847_870. Contributions to a Manual of Palaearctic Diptera,
Vol. 1, Science Herald, Budapest. 978 p. |