Leprosy, also known as Hansen’s disease or Hanseniasis, is a disease caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium leprae characterized by the appearance of white spots on the skin and the effect of peripheral nerves, which reduces a person’s sensitivity to pain, touch and heat, for example.
The most affected body parts are the eyes, hands and feet, but herds can also touch the face, ears, buttocks, arms, legs and spread and transmission is done through contact with the secretions of the infected person.
- Leprosy is curable when treatment is performed under the direction of the doctor.
- Respecting the dosage and duration of treatment.
- And is performed with the use of antibiotics.
The first and main symptom of leprosy is the appearance of round spots, but it is clearer that the skin can spread throughout the body, these spots can affect hair and eyelashes and can sometimes turn brown.
Where the stain is found there is loss of sensitivity, so it does not cause pain, although this main difference with other skin diseases, because the person wants to feel the differences in temperature and pressure in this region, could seriously regret it. inadvertently.
Skin spots and loss of sensation have occurred due to inflammation of nerves in this area and other symptoms such as:
Leprosy symptoms may be delayed until they appear, depending on the person’s immune response, and the incubation period varies from 6 months to 5 years.
Diagnosis of leprosy is made by looking at the spots on the skin and the symptoms of the person, usually the doctor has sensitivity problems in the area, in addition to checking any deformities of the eyes, brothers, faces and face, for example, that could occur due to the accumulated weight in certain types of leprosy, especially if the treatment has not been performed correctly.
In addition, your doctor may perform a small scratch on your herds and take the sample to send to the lab for testing to identify the bacteria that cause leprosy.
Leprosy is a highly contagious disease and can be transmitted from person to person through the airways, with saliva being the primary means of transmission, so it is recommended that the person with leprosy avoid speaking, blessing, having to wake up a lot. about others, but treatment also begins.
The individual may be infected by leprosy bacillus and can only appear the same way later. Contact by contact with the individual does not pose a high risk of contagion, and about 90% of the population has a natural defense against this disease, so the way the disease manifests itself also depends on the genetics of each character.
Leprosy treatment is done with the use of antibiotics, which should begin with the first symptoms, keeping them for a few months, but which are performed in the health center of the reference treatment center, usually once a month, according to the doctor. advice on medication to use and dosages.
Antibiotics can stop the progression of leprosy and cure the disease, but to achieve complete healing, treatment may need to be maintained for extended periods of time, ranging from 6 months to 2 years, as it is difficult to achieve complete removal of bacillus.
In some cases, complications and deformities can occur that cause work difficulties, harm social life, and psychologically affect the individual.
Some people can heal themselves, without any treatment and after starting antibiotic use, in about 4 days, the patient should be contagious and the person may have normal contact with others.
Treatment ends when the disease can be cured, which usually occurs when the individual ingests at least 12 times the medication indicated by the doctor, however, in the most severe cases, when there are complications from the onset of deformities, physiotherapy or surgery can be performed.
People with multibacillary leprosy, such as hereditary skin lesions, can heal much more slowly, so treatment needs to be maintained for at least 2 years.
Side effects of leprosy medications may include redness of the face and skin, small spots and high spots on the skin, decreased appetite, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, yellowing of the skin and bleeding, nasal bones, bleeding in the uterus, anemia, sien, fever, flaky, painful in the hands, red coloration in the ear and pink cold.
As the embargo disables women’s immune system, in some cases it is during the embargo that the first signs of leprosy appear. Treatment of leprosy in pregnancy is done with antibiotic mechanisms, as it should be prescribed by your doctor.