Leprosy and Its Forms

 

Leprosy, also known as Leber's itchy scaly disease, affects approximately five percent of the world's population. Leprosy, also known as Seborrhea Ascoliosis (SAA), occurs when a person has an increased risk of developing skin diseases, hair loss, and tumors. Leprosy also includes contagious forms of the disease that can spread rapidly through contact. Leprosy commonly occurs in elderly individuals and infants. The most common age when leprosy occurs is late adulthood.

Leprosy symptoms usually develop gradually over time. Initially, a rash or skin inflammation occurs in the area of the skin affected by leprosy. However, this skin rash may not develop and may disappear on its own in ten to fourteen days. In most cases, leprosy results in hair loss, skin lesions, and fever. If left untreated, leprosy can result in permanent scarring, liver damage, kidney damage, heart damage, and even death.

Leprosy has a wide range of possible complications. These complications include heart disease and neurological disorders, such as Parkinson's disease, blindness, and impotence. Another common complication is nerve damage resulting from permanent skin breakdown. In fact, leprosy often results in these types of complications, as patients lose muscle tone due to the disease, their skin loses elasticity because of decreased blood supply to the skin, and they develop open ulcers, sores, and painful swellings due to the exposure of the blood vessels to the inflamed skin. These symptoms are often mistaken for the flu or common cold, but leprosy is a serious and potentially life-threatening disease that needs to be diagnosed and treated promptly.

Leprosy can be transmitted through close physical contact, such as touching an affected person who has leprosy. Bacteria can also be transmitted through such indirect contact, such as when a patient sneezes or coughs and then touches an object that was shared with another person who has leprosy. Some medications may have unwanted effects on people with leprosy, such as a medication used to treat arthritis. Therefore, medications should always be prescribed and used exactly as directed.

One of the classic symptoms of leprosy is the development of tiny raised bumps on the skin called urticaria. These raised bumps typically cause itching and burning sensations on the patient's skin, which gradually increase in severity until reaching a level of discomfort that can severely affect daily activities. Patients with leprosy are sometimes misdiagnosed with other skin conditions because of these raised bumps on the skin.

Leprosy can appear in a wide range of individuals, from infants to adults. In most cases, leprosy can only be contagious if the patient is physically close to another person with leprosy, as in contact during physical touching. However, some cases of leprosy may develop in such a way that the person cannot feel that they are in contact with any other person. When this happens, leprosy cannot be contagious - the disease requires physical contact for it to spread. However, even when there is no close physical contact between a patient and someone else with leprosy, the illness can still spread indirectly, via contact to objects that have been contaminated by the contaminated person's sweat or blood.

When leprosy does not develop into a fully-developed disease, symptoms often don't appear until the full incubation period has expired. If leprosy were to develop and spread continuously throughout its entire incubation period, it would eventually become incurable. However, there are medicines available that can suppress symptoms during the initial phase of the disease, thereby extending the time between outbreaks. Although treatment of leprosy often involves multiple courses of medication, it is also important to realize that any extended exposure to the medications may decrease the patient's effectiveness in fighting off the illness, and may increase the risk of relapse.

The appearance of leprosy symptoms depends on the area of the skin and body, in which the disease develops. Some of the common symptoms include muscle weakness and soreness, usually around the wrist and elbow areas; dry, scaly skin; dark, puffy nose; swollen glands in the neck; painful joints, and abnormal hair growth on the skin. In rare instances, patients may also develop open wounds in the skin that do not heal. Rarely, leprosy can lead to formation of kidney stones.