Leprosy: Steps Along the Journey of Eradication

Leprosy, or Hansen's disease, is a chronic, infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae, which has been associated throughout its history with extreme prejudice, fear, and revulsion. Through passage of time, disease has spread globally to affect nearly all regions of earth. It remains one of leading causes of deformity and physical disability from a communicable disease, affecting millions of individuals worldwide, despite evidence that suggests more than 95% of world's population has natural resistance to development of disease. 1,2 In addition to disease's physical effects, patients historically have suffered severe social stigma and ostracism from their families, communities, and even health professionals to such an overwhelming extent that leprosy has been known as the before death since ancient times. 3 Although much remains unknown about disease transmission and pathogenesis, tremendous advances have occurred in understanding and treatment of disease. In past two decades, marked success of combined efforts from World Health Organization (WHO), local governments, health professionals, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in identifying patients with leprosy and providing effective treatment to them has resulted in an almost 90% reduction in global prevalence of leprosy.' This statistic has generated substantial hope that success can be achieved in alleviating effects that this ancient disease has had on millions of patients and raising possibility that disease can be eliminated in near future.