The warmer areas are usually spared. This means that the body absorbs bone and cartilage that is in the nose, hands and feet, causing them to shrink to a small size. In the hands, the severe bone absorption is called mitten hands. No part of the body falls off. What does occur often is that the loss of sensation may cause injuries and infections to go unnoticed, leading to deformities and mutilations.
Patients can now go unnoticed in public.
They are treated in out-patient departments with the use of sulfone drugs along with others such as rifampin, clofazimine, or ethionamide. With this treatment, in almost all cases, the disease becomes inactivated and the patient is rendered non-contagious by the drugs, especially rifampin, in three or four days. Even after the patient is inactive, he or she can still have deformities that are permanent. Most cases of Hansen's disease are found in tropical countries. In the United States, cases are primarily found in California, Florida, Hawaii, Louisiana, Texas and New York.