Leprosy Mailing List – July 3, 2018
Ref.: (LML) Evidence of zoonotic leprosy in Pará, Brazilian Amazon, and risks associated with human contact or consumption of armadillos
From: PK Das, Birmingham, UK
Dear Pieter,
The present note is my immediate reaction to the problem of deciding whether Leprosy is a zoonotic disease. My weary reaction is, may be! but can not be ascertained even with the face value of the data presented in this article (LML, July 1, 2018), probably led by John Spencer. All these efforts are being put at a cost, probably for a good cause to stop transmission.
Having noted the appearance of the sporadic data (some in depth and some amateurish following the bandwagon-based evidence), one can accept the followings
i. we actually are not certain, how M.leprae infect (human hosts) and remain dormant for a very long time;
ii. we can not be certain on the route of infection i.e. through broken skin, though aerosol, sexual contact through ingestion by drinking and by feeding etc.
iii. since M.leprae genomic materials (rather than live organism) have been reported to be present in soil, water it is possible animal to human transmissions can be extrapolated in that axis, but far fetched not worth investing tax prayers' money for that kind of research. If that has to be done according to some Pundits with Scout type of expeditious search, one should take along the some other facts, like: in Great Britain, it is recently reported that "Red (not Gray type) Squirrels are infected with M.leprae but the authors assured us that they should not be taken as the source of human infection.
In summary, Leprosy is a fascinating but unfortunate disease and must continue to attract the fertile inquisitive mind and intelligence for finding answers to the mechanism of pathology. Because there are no animal or non animal model of this Biblical ancient disease, by which we can study in a meaningful way. We have to continue in studying the disease in the direct context of patients and in close collaboration with the expert Leprologist. For this reason, I shall strongly advocate that leprosy must be included in the medical and epidemiological curricula of Medicine study.
Kind regards,
Pran
LML - S Deepak, B Naafs, S Noto and P Schreuder
LML blog link: http://leprosymailinglist.blogspot.it/
Contact: Dr Pieter Schreuder << editorlml@gmail.com
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