Florida accounts for almost one-fifth of nationally reported cases of leprosy, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has said.
Leprosy, otherwise known as Hansen’s disease, is one of humanity’s oldest and most stubborn diseases caused by parasitic bacteria.
Mentioned in the Bible’s Old Testament, leprosy has always been rare in the US and can affect the skin and nervous system in often gnarly ways.
A case report last week in the agency’s journal, Emerging Infectious Diseases (EID), has asked people in the Sunshine State to be aware of the risks and doctors to keep it in mind when treating patients.
‘Florida has witnessed an increased incidence of leprosy cases lacking traditional risk factors,’ the report authors said.
‘Those trends, in addition to decreasing diagnoses in foreign-born persons, contribute to rising evidence that leprosy has become endemic in the southeastern United States.’
Health experts aren’t entirely sure what’s driving the increase, given that the cases have no clear evidence of ‘zoonotic exposure’ – caused by germs that spread between animals and people. The bacteria tend to call armadillos home.
There’s also not much pointing to any out-of-the-blue risk factors either.
According to the National Hansen’s Disease Program, 159 new cases of leprosy were reported in the United States in 2020.
Nearly 70% of these cases were recorded in California, Florida, Hawaii, Louisiana, New York or Texas.
But Florida stood out especially. Central Florida alone accounted for 81% of cases reported in the state and almost one-fifth of national cases.
Eight cases have been recorded in Florida so far this year, per state health officials.
‘Travel to [Central Florida], even in the absence of other risk factors, should prompt consideration of leprosy in the appropriate clinical context,’ the authors, who aren’t affiliated with the CDC, added.
They called on state physicians to keep an eye on leprosy and report any cases to help assess routes of transmission.
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