An article in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases has reported that cases of leprosy are on the rise in Florida, noting that “central Florida represents an endemic location for leprosy.”
“Travel to this area, even in the absence of other risk factors, should prompt consideration of leprosy in the appropriate clinical context,” said the report appearing in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, which is published by Centers for Disease Control and Protection (CDC).
However, contrary to headlines in multiple news outlets, the CDC has not issued a travel advisory for Florida. “Emerging Infectious Diseases is published by CDC, but the authors are often not affiliated with CDC,” an agency spokesperson tells Forbes.
Leprosy — a disease mentioned in the Bible’s Old Testament and the third chapter of the Torah — has been chronicled for millennia, yet it is and always has been rare in the United States. Also known as Hansen’s disease, the infectious disease primarily affects the skin and nervous system.
Since 2000, the United States has seen a gradual increase in the incidence of leprosy and, more recently, Florida has accounted for a disproportionate number of the nation’s cases. In 2020, Florida reported 27 of the 159 new leprosy cases diagnosed across the United States. The following year, 13 leprosy cases were reported in Florida. Over the entirety of 2022, the Florida Department of Health reported eight new cases.
But cases are on the rise again. Since the beginning of 2023, Florida has averaged more than two new cases per month. Sixteen cases have been reported from January through July, nearly half of them in Brevard and Volusia counties along the Atlantic coast.
“Leprosy was once feared as a highly contagious and devastating disease, but now we know it doesn’t spread easily and treatment is very effective” with a combination of antibiotics, according to the CDC website. “However, if left untreated, the nerve damage can result in crippling of hands and feet, paralysis, and blindness.”
“Prolonged person-to-person contact through respiratory droplets is the most widely recognized route of transmission,” the Emerging Infectious Diseases article says, noting “there is some support for the theory that international migration of persons with leprosy is a potential source” of transmission.
Appearing on MSNBC on Tuesday, Dr. Kavita Patel, a primary care physician in Washington, D.C., acknowledged the increased concern over the disease but said “that does not mean you need to rush out of the scared of getting leprosy. If you have unusual symptoms in general — skin rashes, skin lesions — please go to your doctor. That’s the bottom line here.”