Leprosy+-++A+Cure?

** __A Cure For Leprosy?__ **

 **Symptoms of Leprosy<--- Previous Page**   **Next Page --->Works Cited**

   **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.**    <span style="color: rgb(127, 27, 197);"> <span style="color: rgb(127, 27, 197);">  <span style="color: rgb(127, 27, 197);">  <span style="font-size: 90%; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 80%;"> <span style="color: rgb(127, 27, 197);">**It was in 1873 that the cause of leprosy (a strain of bacteria known as**   //<span style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 80%;"> <span style="color: rgb(127, 27, 197);">**microbacterium leprae**   //<span style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 80%;"> <span style="color: rgb(127, 27, 197);">**) 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.**    <span style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 80%;"> <span style="color: rgb(127, 27, 197);">   <span style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 80%;">  <span style="color: rgb(127, 27, 197);"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 80%;">  <span style="color: rgb(127, 27, 197);"> <span style="color: rgb(127, 27, 197);">   <span style="color: rgb(127, 27, 197);">  <span style="font-size: 90%; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 80%;"> <span style="color: rgb(127, 27, 197);">**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.**    <span style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 80%;">  <span style="color: rgb(127, 27, 197);">    <span style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 80%;">  <span style="color: rgb(127, 27, 197);"> <span style="color: rgb(127, 27, 197);">   <span style="color: rgb(127, 27, 197);">  <span style="font-size: 90%; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 80%;"> <span style="color: rgb(127, 27, 197);">**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.**    <span style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 80%;"> <span style="font-size: 90%; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;"> <span style="font-size: 90%; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 80%;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 80%;"> **<span style="color: rgb(82, 15, 215);">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. **   <span style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 80%;">  <span style="color: rgb(82, 15, 215);"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 80%;"> <span style="color: rgb(82, 15, 215);"> <span style="color: rgb(82, 15, 215);">   <span style="color: rgb(82, 15, 215);">  <span style="font-size: 90%; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 80%;"> **<span style="color: rgb(82, 15, 215);">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. The cure comes in a "blister pack" of pills, one for each month. **

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<span style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 80%;"> **<span style="color: rgb(96, 12, 198);"> In order to eradicate the disease, WHO has started a program that brings the cure to third-world countries, like places in Africa and India. Their goal is simple, but daunting: to completely get rid of leprosy through educating the public about the cure, and to help those who have been affected by it. To this day, more than **     <span style="color: rgb(96, 12, 198);">    <span style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 80%;">   **<span style="color: rgb(96, 12, 198);">10 million **    <span style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 80%;">   **<span style="color: rgb(96, 12, 198);"> people have been cured completely of leprosy thanks to the MDT cure, and more will be helped in the future. To battle the disease even more effectively, scientists are working on a vaccine against it so that leprosy can be killed before it can affect the victim. **    <span style="color: rgb(96, 12, 198);"> **Current Research** **Though the cure to leprosy has already been found, scientists are working on making one that will be 100 percent effective, and a vaccine (noted above) so that the disease can be prevented before it has a chance to attack. The biggest project right now is to give the cure to those who need it; most of the victims are in third world countries.**