Hansens Disease

Hansens disease, or known as leprosy, a chronic infectious disease, which involves primarily the skin and the peripheral nerves. Altough its primarily a tropical disease, it has occurred as far North as Norway and Iceland.

The leprosy bacterium was first describe by the Norwegian physician, G. Armauer Hansen, in 1874. Its structure and characteristics is similar to the organism which causes tuberculosis. The bacteria are believed to be transmitted by direct contact.

Though its not easily spread, but more than 5% of persons married to a person suffering from leprosy will become infected with the disease. The average period of incubation is five years or more.

Body Disturbances

The disturbances seen in leprosy are extremely variable. Skin is usually affected early while nerve damage appears later. There are many disabling phenomena result from nerve damage rather than infection.

The ulcers of the feet and the fingers are caused by damage resulting from of the infection along the nerves of the extremities. Facial disfigurement is seen only in advanced stages, when the infection is untreated.

Skin lesions vary from simple spots to thick infiltrations and nodule formation. The severity of the infections depends upon the type of leprosy. The most severe cases are caused by the lepromatous, which progresses steadily, and involves infiltration of the skin, producing nodular lesions.

The milder tuberculoid form usually improves spontaneously. In many instances, tuberculoid leprosy would be an unimportant skin condition were it not for the associated nerve involvement.

Leprosy is rarely fatal in itself. Death, when it occurs, usually results from complications, or a concurrent illness. The most serious complications are involvement of the nose and throat, which accompanies the advance disease. Trophic ulcerations of the feet with secondary infection, osteomyelitis (bone infection), and lesions of the inner structures of the eyes, which leads to blindness.

The Treatment

Since 1941, a group of drugs, called sulfones, which are related chemically to sulfonamides, have been widely used in the treatment of leprosy. Sulfones are highly effective in the milder types. Although they do not cure the lepromatous types, serious complications are usually prevented.

Because the similarity of the bacillus which caused leprosy, the sulfones were also tested against tuberculosis, but without success. Sulfones do not destroy, but surpress the leprosy bacillus, so that the patients own defenses slowly overcome the disease.

Treatment failures are observed in approximately 5% of the cases, resulting from the development of drug-resistance by the leprosy bacteria. Although the sulfones act slowly, no better agents have been developed for control of leprosy.

Leprosy is being treated today with large-scale outpatient treatment programs. The U.S. operates a specialized hospital for the treatment of leprosy at Carville, La., and maintains clinics at hospitals, in New Orleans and San Francisco. Also two institutions in the state of Hawaii, to conduct a continuous program for the care of patients, and the control of spread of the disease.

Source : Encyclopedia International

• Leprosy
  U.S. Public Health Service Hospital, Carville, Louisiana.
• Sulfones
  Harold C. Neu, M.D., Columbia University.

Identifying the Disease through the Eyes

Eye was more than just a window of the soul. Senses of vision can also be a window to see the availability of health disorders that we have experienced.

"The eyes are the first places in the body which can be used physicians to see blood vessels and arteries without the camera or the operation," said Shantan Reddy, eye specialist doctors from New York University Langone Medical Center.

Thats why, sometimes ophthalmologist was the first to find that there is a serious disease in patients with diabetes or high blood pressure. In fact, 65 percent could identify ophthalmologist high cholesterol levels in patients before other doctors.

Simak health disorder that can be seen from the eyes. You will be surprised.

1. Arteries in the eyes of a silvery color

More than 20 percent of people who suffer from high blood pressure or hypertension are unaware of its condition. "We can see the condition of hypertension through the eyes because the condition causes the arteries to the retina become quite keperekan so often referred to as silver cable," said Reddy.


2. Spots on the lining of the eye 

Sunlight not only damage skin, but also the eye. In the worst case, exposure to sunlight can trigger cancer in the eyeball called also with eye melanoma. "Cancer could look like a small point in the pigment layer of the eye," she said J.Bakri, eye doctors from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesotta.

3. Blood vessels was evident 

High blood sugar levels can clog blood vessels in the retina that causes it to break more easily. Optometrists are often found abnormal new blood vessels in the eye instead of a ruptured blood vessel. Furthermore, diabetes can also damage nerves in the eye, causing blindness.

4. inflammatory 

Autoimmune disorder that causes the body to attack healthy cells that will trigger inflammation, including in the eye. Symptoms of inflammation are often found among other ocular surface inflammation, itching, and dry eye. It could be a sign of lupus or rheumatoid arthritis.

5. Swelling of blood vessels in the eye 

Allergens in the air such as dust, animal dander, or pollen can affect the eyes. Naturally, the eye will produce histamine and other chemicals to fight the allergen. This process can cause swelling of blood vessels in the eye so that the whites of the eyes look red and itchy.

Source : Kompas.com