The consequences of leprosy

Insensibility and paralysis

What makes leprosy so important as a problem of public health is crippling and malformation resulting from the attack upon peripheral nerves. These attacks may cause loss of sensation in the extremities and also paralysis. The numbness may lead to wounds and traumata left untreated or badly treated - these may in turn become a source of repeated infection that can go as far as osteitis or progressive bone erosion.

3 million persons

The paralysis we most often see is of the fourth and fifth finger in cubital nerve paralysis. Then there is paralysis of the opposition of the thumb in median nerve paralysis. After that, we have external popliteal sciatic nerve paralysis or, more commonly, foot drop. Finally, there is paralysis of the facial nerve referred to as lagopthalmos. Leprosy is one of the main reasons for blindness in the world.. These attacks upon the nervous system and the complications that ensue may crop up in any type of leprosy. However, they are frequent above all in multibacillery cases. Reactions leading to acute symptoms of attack on the nervous system known as neuritis may ensue as the disease develops further. Estimates tell us there are currently in the world about three million former leprosy patients who are incapacitated or suffer from malformations. Such malformation may mean that the patient becomes a social outcast.