What causes leprosy and malaria? What plants were historically used to treat these diseases?

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Ridge L,
The cause of leprosy is related to infection by a bacteria known as Mycobacterium Leprae. Contrary to popular belief, leprosy is not highly contagious; it actually has a low rate of infectivity. Continuous, close contact is needed to transmit it. In fact, 9 out of 10 persons have a natural immunity to it. Susceptibility appears highest during childhood and seems to decrease with age. Presumably, transmission occurs through nasal droplets containing M. leprae or by inoculation through skin breaks - with a contaminated hypodermic or tattoo needle, for example. The incubation period is unusually long — 2 to 40 years with an average of 5 to 7 years. For a long time leprosy was thought to be a hereditary disease, a curse, or a punishment from God. Before and even after the discovery of its biological cause, leprosy patients were stigmatized and shunned. For example, in Europe during the Middle Ages, leprosy sufferers had to wear special clothing, ring bells to warn others that they were close, and even walk on a particular side of the road, depending on the direction of the wind. Even in modern times, leprosy treatment has often occured in seperate hospitals and live-in colonies called leprosariums because of the stigma of the disease. Until the late 1940s, leprosy doctors all over the world treated patients by injecting them with oil from the chaulmoogra nut. This course of treatment was painful, and although some patients appeared to benefit, it's long term efficacy was questionable. MALARIA is caused by infection with a parasite called Plasmodium that is transmitted by a female of the Anopheles type of mosquito. The mosquito bites someone carrying the malaria parasite and then bites you, passing it on to you. There are four different types of Plasmodium parasite. Plasmodium falciparum - this is the only parasite that causes malignant malaria. It causes the most severe symptoms and results in the most fatalities. Plasmodium vivax - this causes benign malaria with less severe symptoms than P. falciparum. P. vivax can stay in your liver for up to three years and can lead to a relapse. Plasmodium ovale - this causes benign malaria and can stay in your blood and liver for many years without causing symptoms. Plasmodium malariae - this causes benign malaria and is relatively rare. P. falciparum is responsible for about three-quarters of reported malaria cases. Most of the other cases of malaria are caused by P. vivax with just a few caused by the other two species. It is possible to get infected with more than one type of Plasmodium parasite. Each parasite causes a slightly different type of illness. In the ancient times, limb blood-letting, emesis, amputation and skull operations were tried in the treatment of malarial fever. In England, opium from locally grown poppies and opium-laced beer were tried. Even the help of astrology was sought as the periodicity of malarial fevers suggested a connection with astronomical phenomena! The herb Artemisia annua (sweet wormwood) was known to the Chinese as qing-hao for more than 2000 years. In 340 AD, Anti-fever properties of qinghao were first described by Ge Hong in China. It is believed that the Spanish Jesuit missionaries in Peru were taught the healing power of the cinchona bark by natives living in the forests of the Andes Mountains, between 1620 and 1630. The first written record of a malaria cure with cinchona bark dates back to 1630. Don Juan López de Canizares, the Spanish governor of Loxa, a flourishing Peruvian city, was relieved of fever by drinking a cinchona infusion. (Loxa Bark).The active ingredient of qinghao was isolated by Chinese scientists in 1971. An ethyl ether extract of qinghao fed to mice infected with the rodent malaria strain, Plasmodium berghei, was found to be as effective as chloroquine and quinine at clearing the parasite. The human trails were published in the Chinese Medical Journal in 1979. Many active derivatives of artemisinin have since been synthesized and it is today a very potent and effective antimalarial drug, particularly against drug resistant malaria in many areas of southeast Asia.


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Hope this helps
matador 89  (+ info)

Can leprosy be affected hereditary, or passed on to a partner/offspring?

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My partner has a background of having leprosy; it is believed to run in her genes. She doesn't have it yet, but are there any possible ways that she can have the disease, or spread it to her offspring? Advice/info please :/
Hansen's disease (leprosy to you) is not a genetic disease. It is an infection caused by Mycobacterium leprae. The disease is spread by mucus droplet and it needs a prolonged close contact. If your partner has the disease now, you will probably be the first to catch it then the children and any other person living in that house. By the way, do you know that there is effective treatment for Hansen's disease these days, and in matter of few weeks of treatment, the patients become non infectious. And if diagnosed early, it wont do all those terrible damage which makes the disease so infamous.

Pellegrini Kitara-Okot
http:www.malariapreventiontips.com  (+ info)

Will a nasal smear be tested for Leprosy?

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If you have a positive nasal smear(Ziehl-Nielsen stain) for mycobacteria in the usa is it evaluated for leprosy? Or is only a culture grown for atypical or tubercolosis mycobacteria?
Question #1: Not unless this is specifically ordered.

Question #2: Leprosy isn't a problem in the United States. The Ziehl-Nielsen stain is used for detecting other acid-fast mycobacteria, including TB.

Question #3: No. See answer to Question #2.  (+ info)

How do people get leprosy since it's not contagious as once thought?

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I just read an article in People (the newest one) about a 15 year old girl in America that developed it! I thought it was non-existent here. It doesn't really tell you how she may have gotten it except for something about armadillos? Why would armadillos be able to give it to you? And what is the treatment? It didn't tell you in the People article except saying that she went through 6 months of treatment.
Leprosy (actually known as Hansen's disease) is contagious, but very mildly so. No one knows how a person contacts Hansen's disease, but it is thought to be contacted through nasal droplets (like the cold or the flu) A very few other animals can have leprosy. Among them are the armadillo. By the way, Hansen's disease is easily treatable. Most people that were in Leper's colonies actually had syphilis, which is more contagious (but only transmissible sexually.)   (+ info)

How do people get sick with leprosy?

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Are you born with it, is it air born, is it like a germ?
you touch a leper. they look like theve been wrapped in toilet paper. stay away.  (+ info)

What diseases are leprosy and lues - where are them from, what are symptoms?

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Leprosy and lues was a serious threat in the early european industrial revolution areas.
  (+ info)

What antibiotics are now used in treatment of Leprosy nowadays?

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What treatments are used in treatment of leprosy today? Do they still use MDT? also what are the symptoms of the disease? I know it's no 'biggie' nowadays.
Symptoms of Leprosy include:
one or more hypopigmented (lighter than your normal skin color) skin lesions that have decreased sensation to touch, heat, or pain
skin lesions that do not heal after several weeks to months
numbness or absent sensation in the hands and arms, or feet and legs
muscle weakness resulting in signs such as foot drop (the toe drags when the foot is lifted to take a step)

Signs and tests are:
Lepromin skin test can be used to distinguish lepromatous from tuberculoid leprosy, but is not used for diagnosis.
Skin scraping examination for acid fast bacteria

Treatments are:
Medications used to eliminate the microorganism and to reduce symptoms include:
Dapsone
Rifampin
Clofazimine
Ethionamide
Aspirin, prednisone, or thalidomide are used for the control of inflammation.  (+ info)

What kind of infectious disease really makes you battle your entire life with grief but doesn't kill? Leprosy?

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HIV kills.
Herpes = shame. (right?)

I want to learn about the psychology of people who has these diseases, what pain they go through, and try and cheer them up writing a book.
Toxoplasmosis, which you get from cats, is a forever disease and is ready to strike you when your resistance is low, and TB which is also a forever disease is there to strike you under the same circumstances, and chickenpox, which is a forever disease, is there to strike you on the same terms and will come back as Shingles. Malaria is in the same boat, as are many others.  (+ info)

How is leprosy carried from person to person? Is it even contagious?

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sex? kissing? air? skin contact? I must know! :-) thnx!
My boyfriend has a light case of it and I read that it is carried through air if untreated.  (+ info)

What kind of cells does leprosy attacl? What can we do to protect ourselves from it?

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Please help.
Leprosy is primarily a granulomatous disease of the peripheral nerves and mucosa of the upper respiratory tract; skin lesions are the primary external symptom.

To protect yourself : boost your immune system.
Short term contact if possible.  (+ info)

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