A 54-year-old Florida man diagnosed with leprosy adds to a growing number of cases detected in the south-eastern United States, which appears to be a new hotspot for the disease.
It follows recent alerts from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the first cases of locally-acquired malaria in the US in two decades; four of which were in Florida.
Leprosy incidence, or rates of new leprosy cases, has been increasing in southern parts of the US since 2000, with reported cases more than doubling in south-eastern states over the past decade. Central Florida now accounts for almost one-fifth of US cases.
Yet a shrinking proportion of US leprosy cases are diagnosed in people born outside the country, while a growing number of reported cases appear to lack any of the typical risk factors of the disease.
“Those trends,” write the three dermatologists who alerted public health officials to the Florida man’s diagnosis, “contribute to rising evidence that leprosy has become endemic in the south-eastern United States.”
Leprosy, also known as Hansen’s disease, is a bacterial infection caused by Mycobacterium leprae and the more recently discovered M. lepromatosis. It is a curable yet neglected tropical disease, which still occurs in more than 120 countries.
About 150 cases of leprosy are reported in the US each year. Unique strains of M. leprae have been detected in US patients, though most cases are people who have traveled from countries where leprosy is present or endemic.
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