Monday, July 25, 2005

Leprosy - Part 1

The last week i was volunteering at abou zaabal, at the leprosy, as i have been doing in summer for the last 3 years.
i'll try to talk more about the place, and things related to all that but as i am really busy, i'll try to post whenever i can.

Here is the first article, about the desease itself. i'm not a doctor, i don't understand all the technical words, so i'll simplify it as much as i can. Excuse me if i'm not getting into much details or if there r some mistakes (but u have to tell me about them)

Although leprosy was well known since old time, the bacteria causing it, Mycobacterium leprae, was discovered in 1873 by Gerhard A. Hansen (1841-1912). it comes from the greek word "lepros".

The symptoms of this disease:
  • loss of sensation at the nerve end
  • destroyed blood vessels, ligaments and skin tissues
  • eroded bones
  • sores
  • ulcers
  • scabs ( i don't know what this means so don't ask me, ask professionals)

Leprosy is neither hereditary nor infected by touch.
Close contact over a long period of time with an untreated person is needed in order to be infected with the disease. (the place i go, in abou zaabal, all people are already treated, i'll talk about there later in following posts).
and finally, leprosy can be cured.

sources:
http://www.tipsofallsorts.com/leprosy.html
http://www2.kenyon.edu/Projects/Margin/lepers.htm
http://www.pitt.edu/~super1/lecture/lec10641/

3 comments:

  1. Anonymous25/7/05 23:37

    hmmm, looking forward to the next article. I am very excited to read your personal experience with helping patients recovering from leprosy. share as much as you can.

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  2. Anonymous9/3/06 15:50

    Leprosy is certainly curable. The UN agency World Health Organisation (WHO) has provided free multidrug therapy to all endemic countries since 1995, and this free provision will run until at least the end of 2010. See their website http://www.who.int/lep for details.

    Some charities still ask for considerable amounts of money to treat the disease even though the MDT drugs are free.

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  3. the problem is not in the drugs; the problem is that the people who live there, they r already treated, but society can't accept them. also in some places, there is not much awerness that it can be cured and they r afraid from it so they isolate those people

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