CDC: Researchers Suggest Leprosy May Become Endemic in Florida

Researchers suggest that leprosy has become endemic in the southeastern United States, with Central Florida accounting for 20 percent of cases.

The entire state of Florida accounts for 81 percent of the biblical-era disease in the United States.

The study published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revealed 159 new cases were reported in the U.S. in 2020, doubling the number of reported cases in the last decade based on data collected by National Hansen’s Disease Program. Approximately 70 percent of these new cases were reported in Florida, California, Louisiana, Hawaii, New York, and Texas.

Leprosy, otherwise known as Hansen’s disease, is a “chronic infectious disease caused by the acid-fast rod Mycobacterium leprae.” The disease primarily targets the skin and peripheral nervous system which includes the brain and spinal cord. While it is unclear how it spreads; researchers believe “prolonged person-to-person contact through respiratory droplets is the most widely recognized route of transmission.”

Researchers say that there is no clear evidence of zoonotic exposure — caused by germs that spread between animals and people — in Central Florida, nor did any patients travel outside of the United States. However, researchers say evidence exists showing the spread of leprosy could be due to immigration.

“Reports from Spain linked an increase in migration from other countries to an increase in autochthonous leprosy,” the study read. “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 non-endemic areas.”

A separate study by the National Institute of Health found a high prevalence of tuberculosis (TB), hepatitis B virus, hepatitis C virus, and human immunodeficiency virus among refugees and migrants.

“For example, the prevalence of TB and measles among Syrian refugees and asylum seekers in host countries was found higher compared to the host population,” the study reported.

Last year, border control encountered more than two million migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, many of who were from Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua, CNN reported.

In July 2020, the Harvard Global Health Institute launched the report titled “A Population in Peril: A Health Crisis among Asylum Seekers on the Northern Border of Mexico.”

The report noted that 85 percent of migrants staying in government-run shelters along the northern border were recorded to have health problems.

“As a result of scant access to basic sanitation and overcrowded living conditions, infectious diseases such as measles, cholera, tuberculosis, chickenpox, scabies, respiratory infections, rashes, and eye infections have all been reported,” the report stated.