Leprosy+-++A+Cure

Leprosy – A Cure? Historically, leprosy has been thought to be an incurable disease. From the dawn of recorded history to the Dark Ages to present-day Africa, Asia, and South America, it has run rampant without any forms of defense against it, a slow death for its victims. Before the birth of medicinal science, most uneducated people assumed that the disease was a punishment for their sins from God, or an effect of being a bad person. Throughout the Middle Ages the only “cure” was to isolate the victim, usually in a building called a leprosarium. If the area was rural, then the victim would be cast out. It was in 1873 that the cause of leprosy (a strain of bacteria known as //microbacterium leprae//) was identified by Dr. Gerhard Hansen, of whom the disease was officially named after. This was the jumpstart that began the search for what most people believe was impossible – a cure to leprosy. The first “cure” was both painful and had mixed results: oil from an exotic nut, the chaulmoogra. The oil was injected into the skin, which was painful for the victim and only stayed the results temporarily. This continued until the 1940’s, where a better drug, Promin, was introduced. Though this worked better than the nut oil, it was just as painful and motivated scientists to find a better cure. All of this research took place in a town called Carville, Louisiana, which had become the United State’s first official leprosy testing center. People around the world cheered when another cure was developed. Dapsone pills, another drug that only needed to be swallowed, “worked wonderfully at first” (Stanford) but lost their potency as the bacteria developed a resistance to it. More research continued until WHO (World Health Organization) developed the current cure, MDT – Multidrug Therapy. A mix of Dapsone, Rifanpicin, and Clofazimin (all powerful antibiotics) was developed into pill form, from which a real cure was created. The treatment is painless, easily done, and is completed over a course of six months. It comes in packets known as “blister packets”, and works for a month per packet. The side effects are minimal, and include red urine and darkened skin. Besides that, the cure completely makes the leprosy disappear.