Move over, COVID-19, and say hello to leprosy. Yes, that leprosy, the biblical plague from the Old and New Testaments.
That’s according to the CDC, which says that there is “rising evidence that leprosy has become endemic in the southeastern United States.”
Leprosy, also called Hanson’s Disease, is an infection caused by slow-growing bacteria called Mycobacterium leprae, according to the CDC. “It can affect the nerves, skin, eyes, and lining of the nose (nasal mucosa).” Up to 2 million people worldwide are permanently disabled from the disease, which can be transmitted by “prolonged, close contact with someone with untreated leprosy over many months.” It is thought to be spread via respiratory droplets—or even contact with armadillos. The CDC, which now apparently believes in natural immunity again, says, “more than 95% of all people have natural immunity to the disease.”
But in a Research Letter published in the August 2023 edition of the Emerging Infections Diseases journal, researchers from the Kansas City University–Graduate Medical Education/Advanced Dermatology and Cosmetic Surgery Consortium raised concerns about the rise in the number of cases in the U.S.:
Leprosy has been historically uncommon in the United States; incidence peaked around 1983, and a drastic reduction in the annual number of documented cases occurred from the 1980s through 2000. However, since then, reports demonstrate a gradual increase in the incidence of leprosy in the United States. The number of reported cases has more than doubled in the southeastern states over the last decade. According to the National Hansen’s Disease Program, 159 new cases were reported in the United States in 2020; Florida was among the top reporting states.
Central Florida accounted for 81% of cases in the Sunshine State—nearly 20% of cases reported nationally.
The letter in the journal described the case of a 54-year-old man who sought treatment in a Florida dermatology clinic. “He denied any domestic or foreign travel, exposure to armadillos, prolonged contact with immigrants from leprosy-endemic countries, or connections with someone known to have leprosy.” The man has been a central Florida resident for his entire life and “works in landscaping, and spends long periods of time outdoors” He was referred to an infectious disease program and was prescribed triple therapy with dapsone, rifampin, and clofazimine.
The Sun reports that a Texas man in his 20s was recently diagnosed with leprosy after months of battling a mysterious skin rash. “He was heavily tattooed and moved to the US from Samoa — where leprosy is still endemic — four years before he was diagnosed. After a course of antibiotics and surgery to repair damaged tendons in his hands, he is said to be improving.
According to the Texas Department of State Health Services, there are “about 200-250 newly diagnosed cases reported to the national registry each year. The largest number of cases in the U.S. live in California, Texas, Louisiana, Florida, New York, Hawaii and Puerto Rico.”
Researchers said a high percentage of cases in the southern United States “were found to carry the same unique strain of M. leprae as nine-banded armadillos in the region, suggesting a strong likelihood of zoonotic transmission.” But while a recent systematic review “supports an increasing role of anthroponotic and zoonotic transmission of leprosy,” another study demonstrated that the cases in the eastern United States, including Georgia and central Florida, “lacked zoonotic exposure or recent residence outside of the United States.”
That led researchers to suspect “that international migration of persons with leprosy is a potential source of autochthonous transmission.” They noted that “The number of international migrants in North America increased from 27.6 million persons in 1990 to 58.7 million in 2020, so a link to migration may account for the increase in incidence of leprosy in historically nonendemic areas.”
According to the World Health Organization, “As per data of 2019, Brazil, India and Indonesia reported more than 10,000 new cases, while 13 other countries (Bangladesh, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Nigeria, Philippines, Somalia, South Sudan, Sri Lanka and the United Republic of Tanzania) each reported 1,000–10,000 new cases.”
So, not only are migrants bringing communicable diseases like COVID-19 and tuberculosis across the Southern border, but they’re also likely bringing leprosy. It’s been added to the Department of Health and Human Service’s (HHS) list of diseases with “public health significance,” according to U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP):
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has designated the following conditions as communicable diseases of public health significance that apply to immigration medical examinations conducted in the United States:
- Gonorrhea;
- Hansen’s Disease (Leprosy), infectious;
- Syphilis, infectious stage; and
- Tuberculosis (TB), Active—Only a Class A TB diagnosis renders an applicant inadmissible to the United States. Under current Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines, Class A TB means TB that is clinically active and communicable.
HIV was removed from the list in 2009 at the behest of Barack Obama’s HHS. CBP notes that “an individual who is HIV-positive should not indicate that he or she has a communicable disease of public health significance when applying for an ESTA [Electronic System for Travel Authorization] based on his or her HIV status alone.” I’m sure that will comfort the young women and children infected with HIV and other STDs as they’re trafficked over the southern border.
By the way, you should know that this article will most likely be demonetized by the good folks at Google who don’t want us talking about COVID-19 and other diseases coming over the border. The quote from the CDC above likely triggered the alarm that gets us demonetized. It’s stupid, I know. We were right about nearly everything COVID-related for more than two years, while the legacy media got major parts of the story wrong—including that it likely escaped from a lab in Wuhan [TRIGGER!], that masks were basically useless in stopping the spread of the disease [TRIGGER!], and that there are side effects from the vaccines that no one wants to talk about [MAJOR TRIGGER!]—but we’re still paying the price for telling you the truth and reporting inconvenient facts that the Big Tech gatekeepers don’t want you to see. As a result, we will most likely make no money from this article—or a pile of others that have been demonetized recently. Here are a few just from the last few days.
