Los Angeles: A Southern California elementary school student has been found to have leprosy, public health officials said today, though they emphasise that the student’s school and community remain safe.
Two children from Indian Hills Elementary School in Jurupa Valley had initially been diagnosed by a local doctor with the condition known medically as Hansen’s disease, Riverside County health officials said.
But this week they received results from the National Hansen’s Disease Laboratory Research Program in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and they showed that only one of the children had tested positive.
Public health officials emphasize that it is incredibly difficult to contract leprosy and that there is no danger to the child’s classmates. The classrooms had been sanitized since the initial diagnoses.
“It is incredibly difficult to contract leprosy,” said Dr. Cameron Kaiser, Riverside County’s public health officer. “The school was safe before this case arose and it still is.” The US sees only about 150 leprosy cases occur each year, and over 95 per cent of the population is naturally immune to it.
Despite its reputation as an incredibly infectious plague that makes sufferers shed body parts, the disease can only be passed through prolonged contact, and is fairly easily treated with antibiotics.
It is not spread through short-term contact like handshakes or even sexual intercourse.
Those most at risk are family members who are in constant contact with an untreated person, and by travelers to places such as India, Brazil and Angola where it’s more common.