A new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine reported this week how the researchers compared the gene sequences of Mycobacterium leprae, the rod-shaped bacillus that causes leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease, taken from humans and armadillos in the United States, and found that 64% of human samples were of a genotype not seen before, and 85% of samples armadillos have the same genotype.
The results provide a new way of thinking about how leprosy shows the environment, and sheds light on the possible risk of transmission between humans and armadillos: a risk, which is still very small, the researchers note.
The discovery also could help explain why some people in the United States for the disease, especially those who have never traveled abroad.
In fact, the reason for the study, as the researchers explain in their history, as in the southern states of the United States, including Louisiana and Texas, there are cases of leprosy among the Native Americans who have never traveled in places where Leprosy is common. And in the same region, and also in the vicinity of Mexico, there are armadillos in the wild are infected with M. leprae.
The investigation team included scientists from the US Health and Resources Services Administration (HRSA) National Hansen Disease (PNDS) in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne and the Pasteur Institute in Europe and the Instituto de biomedicīnas Venezuela.
The principal investigator Dr. Richard W. Truman, a researcher at the PNDS, told the press that:"Leprosy has been feared throughout human history and there are still areas in several countries, particularly in the southern United States where new cases of this disease continue to occur."
"The results of this study will help us better understand some of these infections come from" he added.Seeking to reassure the public, said Dr. James Kristopher, director of the PNDS, however, that the results "do not alter the risk of contracting leprosy from armadillos, which are still extremely low."
Disease of leprosy, or Hansen's is a chronic infection that most often affects the skin, peripheral nerves, upper respiratory tract, eyes and mucous membranes of the nose. More than 2 million people worldwide have nerve damage, deformity and disability caused by leprosy, which now affects most people living in the tropics.The disease can be treated with antibiotics, but it is easy to misdiagnose, and when it occurs treatment is delayed and there is a great chance to lead to disability and deformity.
Armadillos are the only animals known to carry leprosy, whether natural. However, until this study there was no evidence that leprosy could travel between the species was thought to be transmitted from person to person by respiratory droplets, even decades, armadillos are suspected as the source of human infection the area of the Gulf Coast of the United States.
