IN MY SHOES: What It’s Like To Have Leprosy
Last summer, pink marks suddenly appeared on the back of Elizabeth "BB" Blanchard's left calf. Over a period of weeks the rash spread behind the Baton Rouge, LA, 15-year old’s knee and toward her foot. When a dermatologist biopsied the rash, the diagnosis was shocking: leprosy, that biblical scourge that took a miracle to cure in the Charlton Heston classic, “Ben Hur”:
Had BB Blanchard's leprosy been diagnosed 60 years ago, her life would likely have taken a far different course. But the drug therapy developed at [National Hansen's Disease (Leprosy) Clinical Center in] Baton Rouge … effectively treats leprosy, and when the illness is diagnosed early, the terrible complications can be avoided. …
The Hansen's disease center wrote a letter to BB's school explaining that, although she was under treatment for leprosy, she could resume all her usual activities and would not be a risk to anyone else - standard practice and an attempt to thwart the widely held misconception that leprosy is easily spread. …
BB's friends and classmates also rallied around her. “They were really supportive,” she said. “One of my closest friends Googled and read everything about it on the Internet. Then she said, ‘Ask me anything about it, because I know all about it.’”
That's a far cry from what used to happen when leprosy was diagnosed. It was common practice just decades ago to expel children from school and burn their papers, desks and books in a mistaken effort to prevent spread of the disease. State and local laws required all those with the disease to be treated at the Public Health Service hospital in Carville, La. People with the disease were removed from their families, their children were taken from them and for decades they were even denied the right to vote. …
Earlier this month, BB finished taking her medication. The marks on her leg are smaller, smoother and have turned from pink to brown - confirming that the infection was indeed leprosy and that it was getting better. BB developed anemia, a complication of the medications that left her tired. But that is now gone. …
Now that final exams are over, BB and one of her friends are looking ahead to next year. They're planning a science project on their new favorite subject: leprosy. "This is the perfect thing to educate my school and everyone about it," BB says. "I have really great knowledge about it now."
Roughly 6,000 Americans have Hansen’s disease. Up to 200 new cases are reported each year, mostly in CA, LA, MA, NY and TX, reports The Washington Post. Only armadillos and humans can contract the disease, and 95 percent of all people are immune to it.
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