Stumps for hands and legs, and open sores — many people fight shy of people suffering from leprosy as the general notion is that one will immediately catch the disease. However, leprosy cannot be transmitted by talking to someone or touching someone with the disease.

Nepal is one region where the prevalence of leprosy is very hight. According to a recent WHO report (published in December 2008), Nepal is second only to Brazil for high prevalence of leprosy. The Nepal government has set a target to eliminate leprosy from the country by the end of 2009. Elimination means that the number of new leprosy new (prevalence rate) should be less than 1 per 10,000 population.

As the temperature in the Tarai region is suitable for the growth of bacteria that causes leprosy, it is mostly found there. Leprosy is caused by the microbacterium leprae, which mostly grows in unhygienic environment — places without proper sanitation and polluted areas. Leprosy is an air-borne disease, so it is only through long exposure to someone who is not on treatment that it can be transmitted. And the bacteria cannot grow in the atmosphere outside. It is usually in mice, armadellos and humans that it grows.

If detected in the initial stages, leprosy can be cured completely with proper and regular medication, and if the course is completed. Leprosy is a disease which affects mostly the skin and nerves. The incubation period for the bacteria to grow is from three to five years and the symptoms are hypo-pigmentation, anaesthetic patches and skin lesions. Pure neuritic forms damage the nerves causing finger clawing, foot-drop and lagophthalmos (which affects the eyes).

Leprosy causes people to lose all sensations in that particular area; be it heat or pain, they do not feel it. Even open sores do not affect them and ulcers are also caused by it. But leprosy is not transmitted through such sores.

But it can be prevented by Multi Drug Therapy (MDT), which usually takes from six months to two years. And once a person is on medication, within one week the bacteria will not affect others.

But there are times when reactions on patients have been seen which may occur before, during or after treatment. The concept that bee honey cures leprosy is not true. It is just used as a dressing for leg ulcer for quick recovery.

(Information provided by Dr Indra B Napit, Medical Director, Anandaban Hospital and Dr Pankaj Awale)