Talk:Leprosy/Archive 1

message: Apparently the author of this little blurb (below) didn't read the original article and likes to rant about nothing.  The target article didn't say that biblical leprosy wasn't Hansen's disease, just that sometimes in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testement) the descriptions don't match exactly what happens in Hansen's and the Hebrew term "tzaraas" translated as leprosy may be describing more than one medical condition.  What a heap of prattle about ancient Greeks, punishment from God, etc.  Our education system has failed this person!
Is there really a difference between tzaraas and leprosy? To say that the cases of leprosy in the Bible bear no relevance to Hansen's disease sounds a little dodgy to me. Surely those reporting cases in biblical times believed it to be a punishment from God simply because of superstition and ignorance of the real cause of the disease? Of course they were going to say it was sent from God - they had no idea what a mycobacterium was. --Urbane legend 22:40, 9 August 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: In the spirit of being bold, I've edited the section discussing tzaraas as something separate from leprosy. If anyone disagrees, let's discuss. --Urbane legend 15:43, 10 August 2005 (UTC)

text: Indeed. All this talk of leprosy in the Bible obviously rests on a translation of the original Hebrew and Greek texts (into English). The two Bibles which i prefer are direct re-translations of the same texts, and do not use the term "leprosy", but "skin disease" (or "diseased skin"), or, at the most specific, "scabs" (and i checked everywhere Cruden's Concordance would point me to). Jerome Potts 05:39, 26 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: "Biblical" leprosy

message: Hansen's disease → Leprosy. The article begins "Hansen's disease, commonly known as leprosy..." Policy says use common name. Jonathunder 05:46, 2005 Apr 7 (UTC)
*I would add in support of this that most of "what links here" points to leprosy. And as others have noted in the discussion above, most references to the disease, not only in history but currently, call it leprosy. Jonathunder 05:54, 2005 Apr 7 (UTC)
*Support. Not only is it the most common name in lay publishing, but also in medical texts as well. I didn't even come across the term "Hansen's disease" until my second year of medical school, and it was presented as an older term to know in case someone mentioned it by that name. — Knowledge Seeker দ 06:33, 7 Apr 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Requested move 

message: * We don't need to vote here. "What links here" shows that editors have already voted, by a ratio of more than 100 to 1. Tannin 11:24, 7 Apr 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Discussion

message: We need to sort out the examples that are given, they currently present a slightly skewed picture. - brenneman(t)(c) 01:10, 11 November 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: The POV tag has been on that section since Nov 10. Does anybody else have an opinion about it? In my opinion, I think that just because it provides unpleasant information, that doesn't necessarily make it POV. Unless there's further discussion on the topic, I think it would be okay to remove the tag, though I'd recommend waiting one more month to allow other opportunities for more opinions. --Arcadian 17:25, 4 December 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: I agree with Arcadian; the POV tag is for information that is biased, but that section (I'm assuming that the disputed point is the Japan information) contains nothing that isn't full supported with evidence. At least three distinct news reports exist that corroborate this information, and unless someone can present a clear definition of the "slightly skewed picture," the POV should be removed. --AyAn4m1 17:19, 13 December 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Asylums POV 

message: i think that it would be a good idea to add this as a new subsection, maybe clean up the rest of the article a bit to make room. thialidomide has been proven to be an effective treatment, and of course the disease is readily curable today, and has become quite rare. i think that these points should be elaborated on a bit. also, another image might be a good idea. Joeyramoney 17:01, 4 February 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  modern incidence and treatment 

message: I read somewhere that leprosy disappeared from Europe after the Black Death (1348). A look at Google Scolar unearthed some theories about lepers being immune to plague, and plague survivors being immune to leprosy. Somebody has more information ? StefanoC 09:01, 1 March 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  history 

message: Can a more knowledgable person add some information on vaccinations for leprosy?--205.213.6.3 17:44, 20 April 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Vaccine 

message: In view of the importance of the revival of this discussion, I have moved it to the bottom where more people might see it.
Following text removed as updated with new information and graphics on MDT treatment regimens:
::Dapsone was used to treat leprosy from 1946, but because of low efficiency it was believed necessary to take dapsone for months if not years. Search for more effective medicines led to the discovery of clofazimine and rifampicin in the sixties. Of the two, rifampicin was the most widely adopted.  The first study using rifampicin to treat leprosy was published in 1970.  In 1982 Multi-Drug-Therapy (MDT) was introduced, based on studies published by Shantaram Yawalkar and colleagues.  The treatment Yawalkar formulated was a combination of rifampicin and dapsone.
::The WHO recommends multidrug regimens for all forms of leprosy. Treatment for lepromatous leprosy requires more intensive regimens and a greater duration than that for tuberculoid leprosy. For affected adults, the WHO advocates dapsone 100 mg once a day, clofazimine 50 mg once a day plus 300 mg once a month, and Rifampin 600 mg once a month for at least 2 years or until results of skin biopsies are negative (usually in about 5 years). For tuberculoid leprosy patients the WHO recommends dapsone 100 mg once a day and Rifampin 600 mg once a month for 6 months. Many authorities in India recommend that the duration be extended to 1 year.
::Since 1995, the World Health Organization (WHO) has provided all endemic countries with free MDT, supplied through Ministries of Health. In December 2005, an agreement was signed between the WHO and the pharmaceutical company Novartis to extend this free provision until at least the end of 2010. There is no known resistance to MDT drugs.
--WHO Leprosy 12:30, 26 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Treatment of leprosy (section moved) 

message: Is there any good reason why a capital L is used for most cases of Leper and Leprosy in this article?
::No, there isn't.
::: "Leprosy" and "Leper" are not proper nouns. I've removed the capital - can we keep an eye on this? Squeezeweasel 00:01, 12 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Capital L 

message: Recent historical research has led some historians to believe that many cases thought to be leprosy in Antiquity and the Middle Ages may have, in fact, been syphillis (especially since the idea that syphillis originated in the New World and was brought to Europe by the Spanish crewmen of Columbus' expeditions).  
Tertiary syphillis (the third and final stage if it's untreated) has many similar signs (i.e. evidence of diease or injury observed by a physician as opposed to symptoms which are reported by the patient) as does the most severe type of (lepromatous) leprosy.  
Although I don't think there's any reason to doubt the article's neutrality, it's treatment of the history of the disease is spotty and desultory.  I agree that an separate article on its history is called for--especially in light of the recent suspicions about it and syphillis.
Also, there's no mention of the leprosy treatment center in Lousiana, long considered one of the best.
There's no mention about leprosy in literature.
Stephen_R._Donaldson wrote two epic fantasy trilogies about a modern man with leprosy who is transported to alternate reality where his disease is cured.  The books are called The Chronicles of Thomas Convenant, Unbeliever, and the The Second Chronicles of Thomas Convenant, Unbeliever.  The books, esp the first triology, have been favorably compared with Tolkein and were phenomenally popular in the 80s.
The first part of the first book, Lord Foul's Bane has a long section about leprosy and the Covenant character's treatment.
PainMan 03:53, 27 August 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Leprosy & Syphillis & Historical Article 

message: Can anyone confirm the origin of the term "Leprosy" in the English Language. In Leprosy the author sites that the "term first appeared in the English language in the 1300s coming from Greek and Hebrew" [Oxford English Dictionary: Second Edition. 1989] but in the Oxford American Dictionary Software on Mac OS X, it is written that the English origin of the word Leprosy is from the mid 16th Century: "ORIGIN mid 16th cent.(superseding Middle English lepry): from leprous + -y 3 ."[Oxford American Dictionary] I apologise for not referencing properly.
I checked in my 6th Edition Oxford advanced learners dictionary to confirm the date, but it does not include dates.
Nicksoper 21:28, 10 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Origin of the  word Leprosy in the English Language 

message: Leprosy was also featured in the film "Diarios de motocicleta (2004)" or "The Motorcycle Diaries (Eng)". In the film, Ernesto Guevara de la Serna and his friend Alberto Granado will visit and volunteer for 3 weeks in San Pablo Leper Colony in Peru.
See also the autobiography "Papillon" by Henri Charrière and film thereof featuring Dustin Hoffman and Steve McQueen where Papillon's escape from his interrment in the penal colony in French Guyana is assisted by men in a leper colony there. Godgirl 23:40, 23 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Leprosy featured in a film. 

message: "Although Leprosy is known to affect people for decades, Gerhard Armauer Hansen is widely recognized for his identification of the Mycobacterium leprae." - This sentence makes no sense. I'd fix it, but I'm not sure what the writer was trying to say. -- Writtenonsand 10:16, 14 November 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I've redrafted that paragraph after having read the article on Hansen, and it seems to make sense now. Please make any changes you think necessary! Squeezeweasel 23:56, 11 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Need grammar fix 

message: 129.252.246.68 15:45, 14 November 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  leprosy and transposon 

message: Well, according to the bible he did, but the phrasing of this sentence assumes a Christian background of the reader. Is this a verified fact?
Should it even be presented as such, considering how many other faiths don't include this character? Perhaps refer instead to the involvement of Lepers in the Christian traditiion than a statement of fact?
Lipatden 00:16, 19 November 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I thought "Christian tradition" was a good phrase until I looked it up. It means the things Christians believe that are not in the Bible. I think "According to the Bible" is a good phrase that does not enforce a POV, rather allowing the reader to apply their own POV to it. Notinasnaid 10:29, 19 November 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Jesus interacted with Lepers 

message: I wanted to say that the "Transmission" section is pretty hard to follow. I know a bit about leprosy but reading that was a little more technical than I think it should be. It's a little too high falutin and there's just a little too much jargon. Wikipedia needs to remain accessible to everyone. Overzealous individuals sometimes go all out with an article or article section that they have extensive knowledge on. While the thought is appreciated the end result is sometimes a section of information that is of little use to the casual reader. Perhaps someone could re-word or summarize the information so it is easier to digest? Or perhaps a diagram/image of some kind would help? --DannyBoy7783 03:09, 24 November 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I second this.  141.149.210.101 02:43, 4 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  "Transmission" section 

message: the first paragraph reads that it IS
then the "Clinical features" section states that it is NOT
which is it?
:Leprosy is likely only mildly communicable. There are many theories, including lengthy incubation periods (WWII soldiers) and the necessity of long term skin contact for transmission.[Waxler, N. (1981) Learning to be a Leper, Social Contexts of Health, Illness and Patient Care] As well, that if the disease is diagnosed early and treated regularly it is possible to arrest transmission and symptoms. It may increase clarity if the entry reflects the possibility that the exact relationship between Leprosy and M.leprae is not clear. T anth
:"Infectious" does not mean a disease is easy, or even possible, to catch; the term is often abused to mean "easy to catch". Notinasnaid 12:38, 11 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  is it or isn't it infectious? 

message: Leprosy can be cured by the use of multidrug therapy (MDT) - a combination of rifampicin, clofazimine and dapsone. WHO has been providing the drugs free of charge to all endemic countries since 1995 -see their website http://www.who.int/lep/ for details. Unfortunately the entry in Wikipedia providing this information was deleted in the last few days. I have now reinstated it and I hope the entry will ot be vandalised again, as the public need to know that the treatment is effective and available free.
The following statement has been removed: "A large number of recent cases have shown to be resistant to treatment, especially strains found in those residing in the Western United States and England.". No reports of resistance to MDT have been recorded or reported to WHO. Such a bold statement should have been accompanied by documentary evidence.
JayFBee, Dec 11th 2006: this whole section is obviously written by an ill informed person (with an agenda and a high dose of bad faith). I think it is a disgrace that this page should remain as it is. Examples:
-"the old, false assumption that "leprosy is caused by the leprosy bacillus", rather than on a contemporary understanding of the microbes involved,". A bacterial cause is a FALSE ASSUMPTION????????? And what "microbes "involved?????????
-"For most people, a six month course of tablets for the milder form of leprosy and two years for the more severe form is still given while they cure themselves of the disease." They do not cure "THEMSELVES" while taking tablets (for fun or to please an incompetent doctor). They are cured BY the tablets of ...antibiotics, of course!
And so on and so forth. This page by itself, which merges historical and socilogical remarks with bizarre biological concepts, calling for the abandonment of antibiotics in favor of computer modelling, could be enough to make one doubt of Wikipedia.
:All these changes can be tracked down to here. These makes up all of the contributions by a user, who did not add anything else. I present this, but do not seek to repair the article, lacking the technical knowledge; the editor included copious references. Technical knowledge or no, the tone is clearly non-encyclopedic in parts. I have added an NPOV flag to that section. Notinasnaid 12:18, 11 December 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I have added a stronger flag. However, undoing it would be complex; some changes have been further edited. A simple question for the experts: is the statement "caused by a DNA plasmid (transposon, or "ultravirus", a small circle of DNA) carried in Hansen's bacillus" right, wrong, or still controversial? Notinasnaid 12:43, 11 December 2006 (UTC)

text: www.reference.com is one of many sites that reuse Wikipedia articles. If this article changes they might, or might not, at some point pick that up. Notinasnaid 00:26, 12 December 2006 (UTC)

text: 70.181.253.87, none of these edits were vandalism. The history section is well referenced and contains a useful information over the disease's discovery. You should also keep the image as Wikipedia is not censored and the image makes a useful addition to the article's information over the effects of Leprosy. I've reverted your changes now. Michaelas10 (Talk) 14:04, 14 December 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I suppose I shall have to log in to deal with this issue. I had not expected someone other than the original single issue editor to revert my change. I'm not sure if you read the rest of this section before reverting me - the history section and image were but incidental victims of a reversion which was done to remove extremely significant fringe viewpoint pushing by a single editor, User:Itaintnecessarily, who inserted a variety of fringe material relating to a bizarre theory of the mechanism of the disease (the "ultravirus") that contradicted every external link on the page, and every source that I have found. I called this possible vandalism because the fringe theory doesn't appear to have even a web page supporting it, which is unusual in dealing with such matters, and could point toward this being a careful insertion of false material with important consequences. As I noted, the article in the state you reverted to claimed that MDT was not an effective treatment and that people shouldn't use it, in direct contradiction of every reliable source I have found, including websites from WHO, CDC, and a variety of other significant groups. Since there isn't any reliable source at all for the fringe theory, we really shouldn't be including it by WP:V. It is important that one be careful to understand the reasons for changes when reverting - as I noted, we are the number three result for leprosy, and you just reverted to a version that gives an entirely bizarre and unsupported view of the disease and its treatment that could quite possibly endanger the well being of people with the disease. Feel free to add the image and the history section to this version, however. --Constantine Evans 22:45, 14 December 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: If you see false facts, you can always remove them, or contact who added them. I don't think you should've reverted over 100 revisions which include my hard work and reorganizing of the article. Michaelas10 (Talk) 08:11, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

text: For clearness' sake, I have moved the Disputed and NPOV tags to the top of the page. As far as I can tell, there is a fair share of vandalism left over in the article (the bullshit about the ultravirus is even still in the introduction), so I think it is better for everyone if the tags are visible outright without having to look for them. --84.186.254.176 03:37, 30 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Treatment of leprosy 

message: "Recently, leprosy has also emerged as a problem in HIV patients on antiretroviral drugs and abhilasha is cool.(NY Times)".
Changed To:
"Recently, leprosy has also emerged as a problem in HIV patients on antiretroviral drugs(NY Times)."
Offensiveandconfusing 18:29, 15 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Vandalism 

message: The assertion that a plasmid is the etiological agent was contradicted by the footnotes and I removed it. I removed the following very old citation of Corcos (under "Further reading") which I deem to be misleading since it is listed with no discussion of the results of subsequent research. I think it may be useful as a footnote on the history of research on HD. Finally, I replaced the npov tag with the expert tag.
*Corcos, Michael, "Molecular Biology of H.D. - The Case For The involvement of a Transferable Plasmid". The Star, Volume 41, no. 3, January 1982
Walter Siegmund (talk) 15:07, 23 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Plasmid theory 

message: I think that leprosy is a huge a deadly disease. It affects many people in the world right now and I feel bad and sorry for these people. In school, I had to research a disease that the teacher chose for me, my disease ended up being LEPROSY.
I want people to read this essay and tell me what I should add to it. Here is my essay:
There are many diseases in the world right now that are affecting people.  Some examples of these diseases are cancer, diabetes, lung cancer etc.  One disease in particular is leprosy.  Leprosy has many symptoms and it also has a very interesting history that people might have never even known about.
	Leprosy is a deadly and infectious disease, but it is one of the fastest diseases to get.  This disease can cause many different skin problems and loss of feeling. Leprosy can also cause paralysis in the hands and feet.  Another name for leprosy, another name that people might know, is Hansen’s disease, which was named after Gerhard Henrick Armauer Hansen, the man who discovered the disease.
	The thing that causes leprosy is a bacteria called Mycobacterium leprae.  This bacteria can be found on the skin and it very infectious. When this bacteria comes into the body, two things can happen.  Either the immune system can block and reduce the disease from spreading (this is the milder form of leprosy, Tuberluloid leprosy), or the disease becomes to strong for the immune system to fight off and spreads more quickly (this type is more contagious and is called lepromatous).
	Leprosy has many symptoms and all of them come in stages.  Leprosy attacks the skin first, so sometimes people would develop white or red patches on the skin called skin lesions.  It also destroys the nerve endings, sweat glands, hair follicles and pigment making cells.  Soon the body’s ability to feel goes away slowly and then all the feeling goes away.  Then the nerves become thickened but if they are not treated the nerves can become damaged and it causes the feet and hands to become weak and curled up.
Even though there are ways to cure cancer and some other diseases, there is no cure for leprosy, yet.  But there are some medicines out that can slow down leprosy from growing.  Sulfa-drug-dapsone is the chief drug that is used to treat leprosy. But there many people have developed a resistant against it.  Some other medicines that can be taken are rifampin and clofazimine.  Also there are many leper hospitals that people can go to treat leprosy.
The history about leprosy is unknown.  Historians don’t know when leprosy started or where it came from.  The first real description of leprosy started before A.D 300.  Leprosy later entered Europe in 400 B.C.  It spread slowly through the Mediterranean Sea and throughout Europe.  When living conditions improved, the disease started to disappear.  People back then and even today have been shunned by neighbors and were kept in separate places, like leper colonies and sanitariums.
Worldwide, one to two million people are disabled with leprosy.  In 1999, 108 cases of leprosy were found in the United States.  But in 2000, 91 countries had been discovered to have leprosy as an epidemic. In addition, men are two times more likely to get leprosy then women.  Also there have been reports that have said that beside from humans, animals can also carry leprosy.  These animals are the armadillo, monkey, rabbits and mice.
There are many ways to get leprosy. But one of the fastest ways to get leprosy is if people live in the areas or countries that have leprosy as an epidemic. Also, if there are poor living conditions like contaminated water or a bad diet.  But there are also many ways to prevent leprosy such as avoiding close and physical contact with people who are untreated with leprosy.  So people who are on long term medication can become non-infectious. 
THANK YOU FOR READING MY ESSAY 
Please comment back on what you think!
Busybutterflybeezwax 17:12, 4 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  What do you think about leprosy? Also read my essay  

message: I also want comments on it and revisions!!! PLEASE!!
Also, if you are making a comment on my essay please copy and paste my WHOLE ESSAY on there and make the SUBJECT/HEADLINE: COMMENT/REVSION
on the copyed essay underline the parts where you think i should make revisions on ok?
THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!!
Busybutterflybeezwax 17:47, 4 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  REALLY WANT PEOPLE TO READ IT!!!

message: I have revised the external link to the World Health Organization home page to the WHO leprosy website as it is more relevant, and may otherwise be missed.--WHO Leprosy 15:55, 16 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  External links for leprosy 

message: The article still needs significant work, but I've removed the disputed tag pending specific comments on which statements/sections are so considered. -- MarcoTolo 07:49, 20 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Disputed tag

message: This is perhaps not the best title for a section on Hansen. Hansen did not "discover" leprosy (which is a disease known for millenia), but discovered the organism m.leprae that causes the disease in man. As there is also a Wiki page on Hansen already, why not simply have a link to that rather than a separate section within this article on leprosy. --WHO Leprosy 16:42, 22 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Excellent points. I've ported most of the GHA Hansen-specific info and refs to Gerhard Armauer Hansen and consolidated the nomenclature and etymology sections into Historical background. -- MarcoTolo 16:59, 22 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Discovery 

message: It is "Hansen's Disease" or "Hansen's disease" (note caps)? -- MarcoTolo 17:02, 22 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Nomenclature