Evan Thomas
New member
According to a study just published in the New England Journal of Medicine, reported in this story in the New York Times, armadillos can transmit leprosy to humans. The group of people most at risk are those who hunt and eat them...
It's thought that around a third of leprosy cases in the U.S. are contracted this way, and 20 percent of armadillos in the U.S. are infected, so the risk of coming into contact with an infected one isn't that small if you're hunting them.
And while leprosy (Hansen's disease) is now treatable with antibiotics, the treatment isn't easy: according to the article, it requires "a one- to two-year regimen with three different drugs."
Not to mention that you'd have to be diagnosed first... all in all, not a fun date.
The article also mentions that leprosy researchers have been speculating about this mode of transmission for some time. So I'm curious, as someone who doesn't hunt them myself (I'm way too far north...), whether there's any "folk wisdom," or any rumors about this, among folks who do.
It's thought that around a third of leprosy cases in the U.S. are contracted this way, and 20 percent of armadillos in the U.S. are infected, so the risk of coming into contact with an infected one isn't that small if you're hunting them.
And while leprosy (Hansen's disease) is now treatable with antibiotics, the treatment isn't easy: according to the article, it requires "a one- to two-year regimen with three different drugs."
Not to mention that you'd have to be diagnosed first... all in all, not a fun date.
The article also mentions that leprosy researchers have been speculating about this mode of transmission for some time. So I'm curious, as someone who doesn't hunt them myself (I'm way too far north...), whether there's any "folk wisdom," or any rumors about this, among folks who do.