leprosy
Nerve-damaging bacterial infection
Leprosy is a chronic bacterial infection that attacks the skin, nerves, and mucous membranes, causing disfiguring lesions and, if untreated, progressive disability.
The disease has been stigmatized for millennia—biblical references to lepers as unclean persist in the figurative sense of treating someone as a social outcast: He was shunned like a leper.
The clinical term is now Hansen's disease.
Bacterial infection affecting nerves
- Mycobacterium lepraeBacterium causing Hansen's disease
- bacteriaNucleus-free single-celled organisms
- infectionPathogen invasion causing illness
- skin lesionsDamaged areas of dermis
nerve damage · numbness · ulcers · disfigurement · disability · dermatology · immunology · transmission
Maritime quarantine station
- sanatoriumFacility for prolonged recovery
- colonyDependent territorial settlement
- MolokaiRural Hawaiian island
- quarantineIsolation preventing disease transmission
medieval · bells · clapper · segregation · asylum · hospice · exile · confinement
Unjust differential treatment
- prejudicePreformed unfavorable opinion
- ostracismBanishment from a group
- shamePainful awareness of failure
- tabooCultural or social prohibition
misconception · alienation · marginalization · exclusion · pariah · untouchable · outcasts · banishment
Hebrew scripture of rituals
- uncleanSoiled or contaminated
- ritualCeremonial set of actions
- purificationRemoval of contaminants
- MiriamHebrew prophetess, Aaron's sister
cleansing · priest · law · impurity · healing · Moses · commandments · testament
Bacteria-destroying medicines
- regimenPrescribed course of treatment
- cureTreatment that heals
- recoveryRegaining what was lost
- remissionTemporary disease absence
WHO · healthcare · medication · clinical · prognosis · preventable · eradication · rehabilitation
Native to one area
- IndiaSouth Asian republic
- BrazilLargest South American nation
- IndonesiaSoutheast Asian archipelago nation
- AfricaSecond-largest continent
Philippines · poverty · public health · global health · surveillance · elimination · prevalence · outbreak
Hansen's disease
Bacterial infection affecting nerves
- Mycobacterium lepraeBacterium causing Hansen's disease
- bacteriaNucleus-free single-celled organisms
- infectionPathogen invasion causing illness
skin lesions · nerve damage · numbness · ulcers · disfigurement · disability · dermatology · immunology · transmission · incubation
lazaretto
Maritime quarantine station
- sanatoriumFacility for prolonged recovery
- colonyDependent territorial settlement
- MolokaiRural Hawaiian island
quarantine · medieval · bells · clapper · segregation · asylum · hospice · exile · confinement · institutionalization
discrimination
Unjust differential treatment
- prejudicePreformed unfavorable opinion
- ostracismBanishment from a group
- shamePainful awareness of failure
taboo · misconception · alienation · marginalization · exclusion · pariah · untouchable · outcasts · banishment · disgrace
Leviticus
Hebrew scripture of rituals
- uncleanSoiled or contaminated
- ritualCeremonial set of actions
- purificationRemoval of contaminants
Miriam · cleansing · priest · law · impurity · healing · Moses · commandments · testament · Israelites
antibiotics
Bacteria-destroying medicines
remission · WHO · healthcare · medication · clinical · prognosis · preventable · eradication · rehabilitation · prosthetics
endemic
Native to one area
- IndiaSouth Asian republic
- BrazilLargest South American nation
- IndonesiaSoutheast Asian archipelago nation
Africa · Philippines · poverty · public health · global health · surveillance · elimination · prevalence · outbreak · developing countries
- Biblical Afflictionsblindness, boils, plagues, pestilence, lameness
- colonial medicinebloodletting, leeches, colonial medicine, cupping, apothecary
- medieval medicinebloodletting, leeching, four humors, humors, barber-surgeons
- Old Ailmentsconsumption, dropsy, ague, apoplexy, phthisis
- Old Diseasesplague, smallpox, cholera, typhus, typhoid
- tropical diseasesmalaria, dengue, cholera, yellow fever, typhoid
leprosyhealth
Condition of body, mind
wellness · wholeness · soundness · vitality · robustness
leprosymeasles
Contagious viral rash illness
influenza · smallpox · bubonic plague · COVID-19 · tuberculosis
- leprosy treatmentTherapy for Hansen's disease