Leprosy is on the rise in Florida, with 36 cases reported so far this year, compared with 20 cases in 2024, according to the Florida Department of Health.
The latest case is a person aged 80 to 84 years old in Leon County, FDOH said.
Hansen’s disease, the official name of the biblical disease, is caused by a bacterium called Mycobacterium leprae that primarily infects the skin, nerves in the skin, and the lining of the airways in the nose. According to the FDOH, the disease is not easily spread, is easy to treat, and nearly everyone has natural protective immunity. But leaving it untreated can cause permanent nerve damage.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, as many as 225 people in the United States and 250,000 people worldwide are diagnosed with the disease each year.
In Florida, 36 people with leprosy have been diagnosed this year, 27 of whom were infected in the state. Of the other nine cases, one was acquired outside the U.S. state of Florida, three were acquired outside the U.S., and five are unknown.
The CDC says it can take up to 20 years for symptoms to appear, and 95 percent of people won’t become infected because their immune systems are able to fight off the bacteria.
Here’s what to know.
What is leprosy?
A 54-year-old man in Central Florida was diagnosed with leprosy in 2022.
Leprosy, or leprosy, has been around for thousands of years, with the earliest known records appearing in China and India around 600 BC. According to the CDC, the most obvious symptoms are skin changes such as discolored or lightened patches, nodules, painless sores on the soles of the feet, painless swelling or lumps on the face or earlobes, loss of eyebrows or eyelashes, or areas of thick, stiff, or dry skin.
If left untreated, leprosy can cause nerve damage, paralysis of the hands and feet, shortened toes and fingers, chronic non-healing ulcers on the feet, blindness, and disfigured noses.
Is there a cure for leprosy?
Yes. Leprosy is easily curable. Treatment involves a combination of antibiotics for one to two years.
“People treated for Hansen’s disease can live a normal life with family and friends and continue to go to work or school,” the CDC says.
Mycobacterium leprae, the causative agent of Hansen’s disease (leprosy).
Can leprosy make your fingers and toes fall off?
No, but it’s easy to see where this myth comes from.
The CDC says leprosy can cause nerve damage in the fingers and toes, causing them to become numb. Injuries may go unnoticed, and permanent damage or infection may result in missing fingers. In extreme cases, the muscles in the fingers and toes can become so weak that the fingers begin to break down and be reabsorbed by the body.
Is leprosy endemic in Florida?
The number of reported leprosy cases nationwide has doubled over the past decade, with 159 new cases reported in the United States in 2020, according to a 2022 report by dermatologists Aashni Bhukhan, DO, Charles Dunn, MD, and Rajiv Nathoo, MD.
Nearly 70% of these new cases occurred in Florida, California, Louisiana, Hawaii, New York and Texas, with Central Florida alone accounting for nearly 20% of the total new cases in the United States, according to the National Hansen’s Disease Program.
How many cases of leprosy are there in Florida?
According to FDOH data:
In the decade prior to that, Florida averaged 8.9 cases per year.
Do armadillos spread leprosy?
In 2023, USA Today reported that some experts believed nine-banded armadillos were behind an increase in cases of domestic transmission. This gentle creature is the only mammal besides humans known to carry the bacteria that causes leprosy.
A 2015 study by researchers at the National Hansen’s Disease Project found that more than 16 percent of nearly 650 armadillos tested in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Florida carried the bacterium. Climate change is encouraging armadillos to expand their territories, which could lead to an increase in cases.
However, scientists have not determined how the disease is spread, nor have direct transmission between armadillos and humans been confirmed.
“When people hear about the armadillo population boom, they think it increases the risk of leprosy in humans, but there’s not a lot of evidence to suggest that yet,” Jim Loughry, a retired biology professor at Valdosta State University, said in 2023.
This article originally appeared in the Tallahassee Democrat: Leprosy cases rise in Florida, highest in 20 years. what to know
