Armadillos Likely Transmitting Leprosy to Humans in Southern U.S..docVIP

Armadillos Likely Transmitting Leprosy to Humans in Southern U.S. The only animal besides humans known to harbor leprosy, wild armadillos seem to be spreading a newly identified strain to susceptible people Ill roadkill: Although they dont usually show outward symptoms in the wild, common U.S. armadillos are often infected with a transmissible form of leprosy. Image: Wikimedia Commons/NASA/Ken Thornsley Leprosy was one of the last things on dermatologist John Abides mind when a 78-year-old man walked in for a screening at the doctors Greenville, Miss., practice. Unbeknownst to the man, two large red bumps had formed on his back. Abide diligently tested samples to make sure they did not indicate tuberculosis. When the results came back positive for atypical mycobacteria, another doctor suggested sending the samples away to have them tested for leprosy. I thought that was a waste of time, he says. When they came back positive, Abide was stunned. I didnt know that they still studied it—or that it was still in existence. In the next few years, he came across two other local patients—an 81-year-old woman with a growth above her left elbow and a 73-year-old man with a red rash on his chest—who also tested positive for leprosy, also known as Hansens disease. None of them had been traveling where leprosy was common, but all three reported close contact with armadillos. Did Abide ever imagine as a Mississippi dermatologist he would be treating leprosy patients? No, indeed, he says. Its kind of scary. That humans would catch the disease from these armored animals might seem unlikely. The nine-banded armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus) is common across parts of more than a dozen southern states. Leprosy is not. Although many cases might go undiagnosed, in the U.S. there are only about 150 to 200 new cases reported each year—and about 3,600 people being treated for the chronic condition. And the majority of the cases, roughly 70 percent, are presumed to be from people w