Leprosy: What can and needs to be done about it.

Foundation for Medical Research shares a few points below.

First and foremost we need to stop trivializing leprosy. We need to introspect, learn from our past mistakes and experiences.We need to understand and acknowledge the following facts;

a) Leprosy is the only disease of the man kind that is mired with myths, superstition, discrimination and stigmatization- are all largely man made problems. Overcoming these barriers and obstacles is of paramount importance.

b) Leprosy disease is caused by a bacillus — Mycobacterium Leprae. This is a unique bacteria that spreads and multiplies in the nerve in human and causes damage to peripheral nerves resulting in loss of sensation in hands and feet and disfigurement.

c) Leprosy infection is not confined to human there are known other non human reservoirs /source of infection such as several rodents, armadillos, squirrel etc. Therefore human is not the only source of infection which means disease can spread from other sources as well.

d) Leprosy germ till today remain ‘non-cultivable’ means it cannot be grown in a test tube thus restricting/hampering several of the research investigations including finding an effective treatment. Testing a drug against leprosy is done using an animal model which is very laborious.

Thus the two most important facts about leprosy disease are “leprosy spreads and leprosy disfigures”.

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Foundation for Medical Research practices a combination of basic biomedical and translational research. Our traditional research areas are leprosy, tuberculosis, medicinal plants and water related environmental research.

If you want to know more about our research specifically in Leprosy, read here — http://www.fmrindia.org/leprosy.html

If you want to read more about what we do, then have a look at www.fmrindia.org