leprosy is such a strange disease. i remember reading an article about an island apartment complex where people with leprosy live, and i was shocked that it is even still around.

Thanks to Novartis and the World Health Organization

it probably won't be still around for long.



:D Yaaaay ! ! !

bump -- January 28th is World Leprosy Day - a Sunday

Yeah, they used to live in colonies as to not spread the disease to the "normies" I don't know if they still have that though.



When ever I think of leprosy though, I think of Monty Python's Life of Brian.



"I'm an ex-Lepper"

chelly - isn't that on Molokai or something? In Hawaii?



There was a Simpsons episode about it... but maybe it's somewhere else.

ah, yeah, it is (from wikipedia):



"Molokaʻi is known as the "Friendly Isle" and is one of the least developed of the main Hawaiian islands.



The island's population is diverse, with a high percentage of people of Hawaiian ancestry. Molokaʻi is noted for the numerous Hawaiian fish ponds along its south shore. Some of these have been restored in recent years. Molokaʻi is also the oldest site for sufferers of leprosy in the United States (the leper colony at Kalaupapa), which became widely known through the work of Father Damien."

"There are only 500,000" because the rest died!

well, yeah... some of them would have died of old age regardless.



The main point is that it's not being spread anymore.

is that dr. cliff huxtable? there on the right?

I heard an NPR report in December on the last

leper colony in America. It no longer is taking

new residents since the cure works so well. So

those who have chosen to stay will die there of

old age. They stay there since that's where all

their friends are.

i like to ask people if they would still like me if i had leprosy...most of them say yes

woa woa woa wow

Dr. Huxtable gets around :D

he does indeed. . .

"you gots ta cure the leprosy with some jello puddin pops!"

Rambunkcious, it would work even better if you

had Halloween photos taken of you with makeup to resemble

leprosy. Then ask them while handing them the photo :

"Would you have liked me when I had leprosy ?"

Then go into the process of multidrug therapy that

cures leprosy.

hahahaha hmmmm april fools idea!

hahaha. god. . .bill cosby:D mmmmmmmmmmmmm PURE SEX.

geeeeez!

Oops - I mispoke. It wasn't NPR. I heard a BBC radio report

on the last leper colony in Europe.



Here's where you can hear the report

( it lasts 5 minutes )

don't eat undercooked armadillos



betcha didn't know

(unless it's in your links, and i didn't check :P)



the FDA has approved thalidomide for leprosy patients







unfortunately - in third world countries with higher leprosy rates, people have been failing to finish their course of treatment, and are selling or offering their unused pills to other people - resulting in a new batch of "thalidomide babies"

Here's a fact about leprosy you may not know. between 40-70% of Armidillos carry leprosy. My grandma got a strain from an armidillo...She's better now

isn't that just fantastic... good job

leprosy is on its way out?

damnz



that gets me hot and bothered

In 1843 a man from Ethiopia named Luon Kula Poora invented Threadless. To begin with it was just a thread but eventually he lost it and it turned into this. Then the Threadless honchos captured Luon and turned his chinchilla collection into hairpieces for women who regretted getting brazilian waxes. Soon Luon started seeing Threadless shirts in his dreams, and one day he woke up and saw glowing red eye hovering in the room. Repost this into 5 blogs or you will be anally raped by a hundred chinchillas during your sleep, and killed the next day.

You need training, J-man.



I will help you.

He needs a cockslap.

Well you never know. It may pay to be on the safe side!

Gladly, the World Health Organization isn't using thalidomide. In their multidrug therapy they're

using three drugs: dapsone, rifampicin and clofazimine.

" This drug combination kills the pathogen and cures the

patient. MDT is safe, effective and easy to administer in the

field. MDT is available free of charge and distributed in

monthly blister packs to all leprosy patients in the world."



I believe these 3 drugs are the ones they began to use

in the mid '80s. So they've had around 20 years to see

if the multidrug therapy has overwhelming side effects

or not. It appears so far so good.



I checked out a website that reported ~40% of thalidomide babies

don't live past their first birthday. :(

rudra, thanks for the heads up on undercooked armadillos

wait....ppl still get leprosy??

wwhhhaaatt???

yeah...my G-ma currently has a strain of it...she got a huge bump on her arm. but they took it out, and she's taking medicine...she'll be better (completely) in a few years

martiandrivein, What exactly did your Grandmother's

doctors prescribe for her to get cured ?

umm...she doesn't like to talk about it...so I didn't ask, I can tomorrow, if you'd like

Yeah, I don't like talking about the times I got hemorrhoids - I can relate. I was just wondering if they were giving her

thalidomide in light of rudra's comment.

^ if she's not having kids (being a grannie and all) it's a non-issue



the reports of new thalidomide babies were coming out of brazil:



"A group of South American paediatricians have investigated the use of thalidomide in the continent to finally establish a firm connection between thalidomide and congenital malformations. They found 100% linkage between thalidomide and severe birth-defects. And they suspect a vast number of unknown victims, as their group only covers less than 1% of all births in South America , excluding all rural areas. .... The paediatrician's found that in Brazil thalidomide is available, not only [through] official channels like health authorities, but is also sold on the open market in pharmacies. .... there is another alarming conclusion to be made from the cases referred by the South American ECLAMC network: The women suffering from leprosy had been medicated with thalidomide constantly for very long periods of time, in some cases 7-8 years. The WHO standard therapy of MDT (Multi Drug Therapy), against in leprosy is a 24 month duration of the treatment, recently the recommendation is lowered to only 12 months.....[despite the risk, often] the patient himself is the driving-force in a prescription situation. Thalidomide acts as a tranquilizer. The patient gets addicted to the drug and wants more, and more....The ongoing occurrence of thalidomide embryopathy cases is limited to the underdeveloped world, where leprosy is more common, and drug control measures are more relaxed. ...A low production cost of thalidomide, the drug's potential for widespread use for many common diseases, the high rate of unintended pregnancies in many countries, and the difficulties inherent in enforcing drug control regulations in many countries, as shown by the leprosy-thalidomide-malformation chain of events in South America . But this second disaster threats also the developed world as ECLAMC noticed the permission requests to commercialise thalidomide on their way in various developed countries. "



and





"Because of its known teratogenic effects, WHO does not recommend the use of thalidomide in leprosy. Experience has shown that it is virtually impossible to develop and implement a fool-proof surveillance mechanism to combat misuse of the drug. Today, a number of thalidomide babies continue to be born each year reflecting regulatory insufficiency and widespread use under inadequate supervision. "

and thalidomide's teratogenic effects are truly tragic



the pic above doesn't show the worst effects

I wonder if the anti-nausea and sleep aid characteristics of

thalidomide are aimed at reducing side effects of the multidrug

therapy (if there are any) or to deal with leprosy directly.

I'm guessing it's the multidrug therapy.



Either way the sooner leprosy is done away with the better

since it would also reduce the need for thalidomide to be prescribed.

yes! ive always been paranoid that i'd get leprosy!!



but then again i am paranoid about basically everything :\

from the Pan American Helath Org:



"During the mid-1960s, the drug thalidomide was reintroduced as treatment for a complication of leprosy called Erythema nodosum leprosum (ENL). Although the evidence was not fully established, very soon the drug was heralded as the drug of choice for the management of ENL reactions in leprosy.



Thalidomide's effectiveness in minimizing the symptoms of ENL was mainly due to its antipyretic action. Its effectiveness to control neuritis, the major cause of permanent disabilities in leprosy, was limited. Several controlled studies done in the 1970s demonstrated that prednisolone was more effective in controlling ENL and associated neuritis. In addition, it was demonstrated that clofazimine, an anti-leprosy drug introduced on a small scale in the early 1960s, had anti-inflammatory action.



Subsequent studies have shown that clofazimine is the drug of choice for the management of chronic, recurrent ENL reactions, as it has both anti-reaction and anti-leprosy effects. Moreover, while almost all patients given thalidomide relapsed after discontinuation of the drug, none of the patients treated with clofazimine for ENL reactions relapsed.



The drug clofazimine is now a component of the multidrug therapy (MDT), introduced by WHO in 1981 as the standard treatment for leprosy, and which is now available from WHO free of cost to all patients in endemic countries. The presence of clofazimine in the combination has significantly reduced the frequency and severity of ENL reactions worldwide.



Today ENL reaction is a rare complication, limited to a small proportion of multibacillary patients. Most of the ENL reactions are mild in nature and do not require any specific treatment except some analgesic/antipyretics. In those patients suffering from ENL associated with neuritis, the drug of choice is prednisolone. For chronic recurrent reactions, the drug of choice is clofazimine."





and those stats about Brazil are from studies in the mid-90s, but I found a page about the future of thalidomide for treatment of AIDS, cancer, etc. with journal citations dating just a few years old

Leprosy... I'm not half the man I used to be!

Body parts are falling off of me,

And I believe... it's Leprosy...



(sung to the tune of Lennon & McCartney's "Yesterday")

i really didn't need to see those images

Yeah... next time please write something about not puking in the blog title so I don't come in here looking for funny leprosy jokes and get an eyefull that I am not signed up for.

HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

staffell, you're the master of the surprise image,

so don't be lecturing me, buddy ! :D

Just be glad no pics of my hemorrhoids exist.

ehehhHEEhHEheHheEHHhee

rudra,



Your post is shocking especially since World Health

Organization is giving clofazimine ( better and safer

than thalidomide ) away free as part of the multidrug

therapy they distribute.



It sounds like thalidomide manufacturers are just

trying to get the stuff out there before leprosy

disappears entirely. I sure hope that's not the case.

anything for a buck



that is unfortunately exactly what is up - the drug is being manufactured in Chile and Venezuela (?) - and distributed in S. America - it's also an issue in India (they have their own pharm. companies)



that, and due to the euphoric effects of the drug's tranquilizer actions - it's a popular choice on the black market to throw at any and every ailment, regardless of risk



it was originally marketed to pregnant women to as a sedative with anti-nausea effects for morning-sickness - because it was deemed safer than opiods (which are addictive)



and on that note:

there was a girl when i was a HS freshman (US, early 90's) who was friends witha senior I knew - she had dropped out and came around to hang out on occassion - she had a young daughter with phocomelia - the sweetest kid, angelic little blonde with mangled arms - and i always wondered what caused it, since it is very very rare as a spontaneous genetic defect, and highly associated with thalidomide toxicity :(

anyway - not to bash the pharm. industry - there are good companies and bad companies - there is a not-so-pleasant corporate side - but there have also been some amazing breakthroughs that can help improve quality of life



drugs that have proven dangerous in one market are often the only thing that will work for other conditions, and the past history of the drug shouldn't prevent it's use for those who need it - there just needs to be strict regulation and oversight...



there's a corporate article which covers thalidomide's history and the new push to market it for various therapies dated W2006/2007 here:



http://www.chemheritage.org/pubs/ch-v24n4-articles/celgene2.html

rudra,



That's such an amazing article. Here's my summary of it for

those who don't have the time to read it all :



In the early 1950s a German firm launched

thalidomide as a "completely safe" drug

to deal with morning sickness. Tens of

thousands of women took it. The Food and

Drug Administration (FDA) of America had

not yet approved the drug and was looking into

it. In the early 1960s the sensational outbreak

of birth defects caused by thalidomide moved

everyone to no longer sell the drug. So it

never was sold in America. This event did a

lot to validate the FDA's existence.



Thalidomide became the most reviled drug in

history. Its name was synonymous with suffering.



In 1965 a doctor in Israel provided thalidomide

to a patient suffering pain due to a specific skin

and joint condition in order to help them sleep.

The patient along with six others responded

dramatically to the drug. Within weeks all the

symptoms were gone and they were normal.

From that point on thalidomide became the

standard around the world in the treatment of

the skin and joint condition the patients had

(ENL = erythema nodosum leprosum). Yet the

negative perception surrounding thalidomide

kept the pharmaceutical industry from investing

a lot of money in researching it.



In the early 1990s an immunologist discovered that

thalidomide regulates the production of a protein

which assists certain diseases' ability to attack

a person. This discovery helped to shift the

perception of thalidomide as an infamous toxin

to a cellular regulator.



A company with little pharmaceutical background

developed an aggressive program to develop a

form of thalidomide containing its benefits while

minimizing its negative properties. As a condition

to be approved by the FDA the company had to use

the strongest possible restricted distribution system

to prevent birth defects. Since the system didn't

exist, they created it. And the system they developed

is now used as the basis for other restricted distrib-

ution systems. With the addition of



The company accomplished their goal through

the production of Revlimid. The drug doesn't

cause birth defects or certain disorders of the

nervous system that thalidomide was known for.

It has been found effective in dealing with certain

patients with MDS ( a disease that decreases

the production of functioning blood cells ) and

has a profound response in multiple myeloma

( harmful tumors that arise in the bone marrow ).

Dozens of ongoing trials are taking advantage of

its mechanisms for the potential treatment of

amyloidosis ( the accumulation of an unusual

fibrous protein in the connective tissue of the body ),

myelofibrosis ( the growth of fibrous tissue inside

bones which causes the production of red blood

cells to decrease ), chronic lymphocytic leukemia

( a cancer of certain mature white blood cells that

function abnormally and cause disease. ), and

non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma ( cancers that begin in

lymphatic tissues and can invade other organs ).

Trials are also evaluating Revlimid in non-tumor

related areas, such as severe neuropathic pain

( pain that is felt near the surface of the skin, along

nerve pathways ).