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Post by zabrubon on Dec 4, 2006 1:10:20 GMT -5
Leprosy symptoms generally appear three to five years after a person becomes infected with the bacteria that cause the disease. However, it can take as short as a few months or several decades. Symptoms tend to vary, depending on the form of leprosy that a person has. Common leprosy symptoms include muscle weakness, skin stiffness, a skin rash, and eye problems. Leprosy Disease What Causes Leprosy?
Mycobacterium Leprae
How Is Leprosy Spread?
Leprosy Symptoms
Diagnosis of Leprosy
Treatment of Leprosy
Effects of Leprosy
Cure Leprosy
Prevention of Leprosy
Leprosy -- American Statistics An Introduction to Leprosy Symptoms
Tuberculoid Leprosy Symptoms
Lepromatous Leprosy Symptoms
Leprosy Symptoms and Associated Complications
Leprosy Symptoms: A Summary
An Introduction to Leprosy Symptoms When a person becomes infected with the bacteria that cause leprosy (Mycobacterium leprae), the bacteria begin to multiply within the body. After three to five years, symptoms if leprosy will usually begin. This period between becoming infected and the start of symptoms is the "leprosy incubation period." Although the incubation period is typically between three and five years, it can range from six months to several decades. Leprosy usually affects the skin and peripheral nerves. However, once a person starts experiencing symptoms, they can range in type and severity. Symptoms can also vary based on the form of leprosy that a person has (tuberculoid leprosy or lepromatous leprosy). Tuberculoid Leprosy Symptoms Tuberculoid leprosy (also known as paucibacillary leprosy) is the mild form of leprosy. Early symptoms can include one or more light or slightly red patches of skin that appear on the trunk or extremities. This may be associated with a decrease in light-touch sensation in the area of the rash. Other tuberculoid leprosy symptoms can include: Severe pain Muscle weakness, especially in the hands and feet Skin stiffness and dryness Loss of fingers and toes Eye problems, which lead to blindness Enlarged nerves, especially those around the elbow (ulnar nerve) and knee (peroneal nerve). It is important to note that not all leprosy patients lose their fingers and toes. With early diagnosis and leprosy treatment, many of these symptoms can be prevented. Several patients with tuberculoid disease can even self-heal without benefit of treatment. In order to prevent problems with fingers or toes, people should avoid injury and infections to these areas and take their medicines as prescribed. Leprosy Symptoms Continued: Page 2 Pages: 1 | 2 | Next
Other Articles in This eMedTV Presentation What Causes Leprosy?
Mycobacterium Leprae
How Is Leprosy Spread? Diagnosis of Leprosy
Treatment of Leprosy
Effects of Leprosy Cure Leprosy
Prevention of Leprosy
Leprosy -- American Statistics
Referring Pages Articles Health Topics Conditions & Diseases
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Post by zabrubon on Dec 4, 2006 1:13:12 GMT -5
Has anyone tried to treat our disease with the antibiotics that people with Leprosy take???
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Post by zabrubon on Dec 4, 2006 1:37:10 GMT -5
Mycobacterium is a genus of Actinobacteria, given its own family, the Mycobacteriaceae. It includes many pathogens known to cause serious diseases in mammals, including tuberculosis and leprosy.
Contents [hide] 1 Common microbiologic characteristics of the genus 1.1 Staining characteristics 2 Mycobacterium ecological characterisitics 3 Mycobacteria as pathogens 3.1 Medical classification 3.2 Species of medically important Mycobacteria 4 Reference 5 See also Common microbiologic characteristics of the genus Most mycobacteria are classified into two categories, the fast-growing kind and the slow-growing kind, based on laboratory growth characteristics. All mycobacteria are aerobic and acid fast.
All Mycobacteria share a characteristic cell wall, thicker than in many other bacteria, which is hydrophobic, waxy and rich in mycolic acids/mycolates. The mycobacterial cell wall makes a substantial contribution to the hardiness of this genus.
Mycobacteria tend to be fastidious (difficult to culture), sometimes taking over two years to develop in culture. As well as being fastidious, some species also have extremely long reproductive cycles (M. leprae, for example, may take more than 20 days to proceed through one division cycle; E. coli, for comparison, takes only 20 minutes), making laboratory culture a slow process.
[edit] Staining characteristics Mycobacteria are classical acid-fast organisms. Stains used in evaluation of tissue specimens or microbiological specimens include Fite's stain, Ziehl-Neelsen stain, and Kinyoun stain.
[edit] Mycobacterium ecological characterisitics Mycobacteria are widespread organisms, typically living in water (including tap water treated with chlorine) and food sources. Some, however, including the tuberculosis and the leprosy organisms, appear to be obligate parasites and are not found as free-living members of the genus.
[edit] Mycobacteria as pathogens Mycobacteria can colonize their hosts without the hosts showing any adverse signs. For example, billions of people around the world are infected with M. tuberculosis but will never know it because they will not develop symptoms.
Mycobacterial infections are notoriously difficult to treat. The organisms are hardy and due to their cell wall, which is neither truly gram negative nor positive and unique to the family, they are naturally resistant to a number of antibiotics that utilize the destruction of cell walls, such as penicillin. Also, because of this cell wall, they can survive long exposure to acids, alkalis, detergents, oxidative bursts, lysis by complement and antibiotics which naturally leads to antibiotic resistance. Most mycobacteria are susceptible to the antibiotics clarithromycin and rifamycin, but antibiotic-resistant strains are known to exist.
[edit] Medical classification Mycobacteria can be classified into several major groups for purpose of diagnosis and treatment: M. tuberculosis complex which can cause tuberculosis: M. tuberculosis, M. bovis, M. africanum, and M. microti; M. leprae which causes Hansen's disease or leprosy; Nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) are all the other mycobacteria which can cause pulmonary disease resembling tuberculosis, lymphadenitis, skin disease, or disseminated disease.
[edit] Species of medically important Mycobacteria M. abscessus, which is also a common water contaminant and was until recently thought to be a subspecies of M. chelonae. M. africanum M. asiaticum Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC), which is a significant cause of death in AIDS patients. This complex also includes M. avium paratuberculosis, which has been implicated in Crohn's disease in humans and Johne's disease in sheep. M. bovis M. chelonae, which is a common water contaminant and can also infect wounds. M. fortuitum M. gordonae
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Post by zabrubon on Dec 4, 2006 1:39:47 GMT -5
Mycobacterium is a genus of Actinobacteria, given its own family, the Mycobacteriaceae. It includes many pathogens known to cause serious diseases in mammals, including tuberculosis and leprosy.
Contents [hide] 1 Common microbiologic characteristics of the genus 1.1 Staining characteristics 2 Mycobacterium ecological characterisitics 3 Mycobacteria as pathogens 3.1 Medical classification 3.2 Species of medically important Mycobacteria 4 Reference 5 See also Common microbiologic characteristics of the genus Most mycobacteria are classified into two categories, the fast-growing kind and the slow-growing kind, based on laboratory growth characteristics. All mycobacteria are aerobic and acid fast.
All Mycobacteria share a characteristic cell wall, thicker than in many other bacteria, which is hydrophobic, waxy and rich in mycolic acids/mycolates. The mycobacterial cell wall makes a substantial contribution to the hardiness of this genus.
Mycobacteria tend to be fastidious (difficult to culture), sometimes taking over two years to develop in culture. As well as being fastidious, some species also have extremely long reproductive cycles (M. leprae, for example, may take more than 20 days to proceed through one division cycle; E. coli, for comparison, takes only 20 minutes), making laboratory culture a slow process.
[edit] Staining characteristics Mycobacteria are classical acid-fast organisms. Stains used in evaluation of tissue specimens or microbiological specimens include Fite's stain, Ziehl-Neelsen stain, and Kinyoun stain.
[edit] Mycobacterium ecological characterisitics Mycobacteria are widespread organisms, typically living in water (including tap water treated with chlorine) and food sources. Some, however, including the tuberculosis and the leprosy organisms, appear to be obligate parasites and are not found as free-living members of the genus.
[edit] Mycobacteria as pathogens Mycobacteria can colonize their hosts without the hosts showing any adverse signs. For example, billions of people around the world are infected with M. tuberculosis but will never know it because they will not develop symptoms.
Mycobacterial infections are notoriously difficult to treat. The organisms are hardy and due to their cell wall, which is neither truly gram negative nor positive and unique to the family, they are naturally resistant to a number of antibiotics that utilize the destruction of cell walls, such as penicillin. Also, because of this cell wall, they can survive long exposure to acids, alkalis, detergents, oxidative bursts, lysis by complement and antibiotics which naturally leads to antibiotic resistance. Most mycobacteria are susceptible to the antibiotics clarithromycin and rifamycin, but antibiotic-resistant strains are known to exist.
[edit] Medical classification Mycobacteria can be classified into several major groups for purpose of diagnosis and treatment: M. tuberculosis complex which can cause tuberculosis: M. tuberculosis, M. bovis, M. africanum, and M. microti; M. leprae which causes Hansen's disease or leprosy; Nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) are all the other mycobacteria which can cause pulmonary disease resembling tuberculosis, lymphadenitis, skin disease, or disseminated disease.
[edit] Species of medically important Mycobacteria M. abscessus, which is also a common water contaminant and was until recently thought to be a subspecies of M. chelonae. M. africanum M. asiaticum Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC), which is a significant cause of death in AIDS patients. This complex also includes M. avium paratuberculosis, which has been implicated in Crohn's disease in humans and Johne's disease in sheep. M. bovis M. chelonae, which is a common water contaminant and can also infect wounds. M. fortuitum M. gordonae
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Post by belikewater on Dec 4, 2006 3:55:35 GMT -5
I think the leprosy bacteria has some characteristics in common with the lyme bacteria, especially long incubation time. Syphillus also takes a long time to show up and has several stages. You are narrowing in on characteristics that are considered common and treatable by homeopathic remedies. I doubt biochemical/allopathic medicine will solve this except for the Marshall Protocol which acts to boost the immune system, also.
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Post by cindycasey on Dec 4, 2006 15:28:41 GMT -5
Zabrubon,
Interesting you should bring this up. Yes, I am currently trying the antibiotics used for treatment of Leprosy (also known as Hansen's Disease). I started this treatment about 1 week ago so I can't evaluate any effectiveness of it. So far, I have not noticed any improvement. I still have good liver and kidney function so I am okay with trying anything that sounds like there could be a chance of improvement.
The meds I am taking are Dapsone and Rifampin.
It is also interesting that early in my career as an LVN, I remember caring for a few Leprosy patients at Seton Hospital in S.F. This was back when I worked in several Bay Area hospitals through an agency while I was going to school to become an RN. So that would've been in the late 1980's. As I recall, San Francisco has a treatment center for Leprosy. I also remember that being young and from the Ozarks, all this exposure to so many diseases (that I had considered unusual before) kinda blew my hillbilly mind.
Once I became an RN, I specialized in open hearts and organ transplants but by this time I had the skill to do anything in Nursing...ICU, CCU, ER...whatever.
God, I miss my job so bad. I just would like to have some of my life back.
Thanks for posting on this interesting topic.
Cindy
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Post by belikewater on Dec 4, 2006 17:04:41 GMT -5
cindy, Thanks for your information.
Hang in there we will figure this out.
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Post by cindycasey on Dec 4, 2006 18:00:51 GMT -5
Thank you Belikewater,
I have tried so hard to stay strong. I have managed to keep smiling in the face of this fear. I have had the patience of Job with this but sometimes it gets hard to keep it up. I appreciate your support. Today, I am having a hard time and I know you understand.
Thanks again for your kindness. I needed that.
Cindy
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Post by zabrubon on Dec 4, 2006 21:34:27 GMT -5
From one hillbilly to another, we are gonna beat this hare thang.
I know what you mean about Job, he went seven long years with boils, imagine lying around in the dust, scraping your wounds like he did. How awful. No wonder his wife encouraged him to curse God and die.
I am excited to hear about the results of your meds. I really think this thing is linked to some sort of disease like this.
I used to work in a manor care home when I was a youngster and was a CNA. Went to Nursing school(left school for divorce) worked and dated an doctor of internal medicine(he taught me to draw blood, spin out the blood, EKG, etc. I did not like that type of work, so I went into real estate, which I love. Then I got sick three years ago. I really believe I was sick for many years. Had the track marks on my hands twenty or more years ago. It seem odd that both my husbands are dead now from cancer. I wonder if it was possible that they had this disease too and it caused them cancer? Just a thought.
Do keep me posted on your medicines. I have a feeling they will work for you. I am so happy another hillbilly.
Chicago Bonnie
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Post by zabrubon on Dec 4, 2006 21:37:43 GMT -5
Cindy, how the heck did you convince your doctor to put you on this medication. He must think you have the big L.
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Post by cindycasey on Dec 4, 2006 21:52:23 GMT -5
It was easy. She knows I have Morgellons and found me to be a good and willing candidate to test it out. Cindy
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Post by Niels on Dec 4, 2006 23:55:06 GMT -5
The meds I am taking are Dapsone and Rifampin. In the "tufted hair folliculitis" thread ( lymebusters.proboards39.com/index.cgi?board=rash&action=display&thread=1156311213&page=1#1163369924) I posted about rifampin/rifamycin being potentially good for morgies, and also saw old references to people finding the same I myself was misdiagnosed by a doctor who wanted me to stop all my antibiotics ("I couldn't possiblly have lyme since I'd been on antibiotics for longer than a month") and start taking dapsone AND zyprexa... she claimed I had Leprosy... jumping to that conclusion due to my year of working in India. I told her, no I have Lyme&Morg and she said "no you have leprosy" and I won't treat you unless you take zyprexa too! I told her to go to hell, especially when the tests for leprosy came up negative. Since i totally disagreed with the doctor, but wanted to try dapsone... I stopped the TMP/SMZ as suggested,. continued the fluconozole/clarithromycin for lyme (Schard Protocol)... and got much much worse. I found TMP/SMZ to be more effective that Dapsone. There are some other sulfas which may be effective, and they're also available w/o prescription as vet meds... for example Sulfadimethoxine pbs.naccvp.com/view_label.php?u=country&p=msds&prodnum=3690004Leprosy wasn't as good a misdiagnosis as having Denny Tuffanelli in San Francisco have his entire office of white-coated doctors nodding in unison "yep... that's AIDS... better start making preparations boy!" (Similarly, to the leprosy diagnosis... but happening a few years earlier... before I even knew Lyme was a possibility.... and very sick... but not with AIDS).
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Post by belikewater on Dec 5, 2006 13:00:48 GMT -5
Here is a coordination between the ideas of the marshall Protocol and Homeopathic theory concerning the chronic diseases. This is from Dr. Samuel Hanneman in the early 1800s:
" ...He made his own nosodes for several acute miasms as well as half acute miasms like rabies and chronic miasms like psora, tuberculous, sycosis, and syphilis. These remedies also play a great role in preventing, aborting and treating infectious diseases and their affects.
Hahnemann considered the miasma to be a microorganism and the miasmic diseases to be the unresolved affects of infections. The following footnote on page 75 is closely related to aphorisms 5 and 72 of the 5th and 6th editions of the Organon.
"Or have these various, acute, half-spiritual miasms the peculiar characteristic that - after they have penetrated the vital force in the first moment of the contagion (and each one in its own way has produced disease) and then, like parasites, have quickly grown up within it and have usually developed themselves by their peculiar fever, after producing their fruit (the mature cutaneous eruption which is again capable of producing its miasma) - they again die out and leave the living organism again free to recover?"
(The Chronic Diseases Their Peculiar Nature and Their Homœopathic Cure; S. Hahnemann (Theoretical Part), Nature of Chronic Diseases, footnote, page 75.
This paragraph teaches the difference between the acute and chronic miasms. Acute miasms are rapid in their onset and reach crisis after a relatively short period of time. Hahnemann notes that this genus of microorganisms is self-limiting so they leave the patient either in convalescence or dead. Patients who do not completely recover from acute miasms usually suffer from the chronic miasms or other chronic states based on maintaining causes or never well since syndromes.
"On the other hand, are not the chronic miasmas disease-parasites which continue to live as long as the man seized by them is alive, and which have their fruit in the eruption originally produced by them (the itch-pustule, the chancre and the fig-wart, which in turn are capable of infecting others) and which do not die off of themselves like the acute miasmas, but can only be exterminated and annihilated by a counter-infection, by means of the potency of a medicinal disease quite similar to it and stronger than it (the anti-psoric), so that the patient is delivered from them and recovers his health?"
(The Chronic Diseases Their Peculiar Nature and Their Homœopathic Cure; S. Hahnemann (Theoretical Part), Nature of Chronic Diseases, footnote, page 75.) ..."
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Post by zabrubon on Dec 6, 2006 0:19:45 GMT -5
Niels, that is astounding. So, it is not a form of leprosy. Amazing how our bodies work. Well that saves me from having to study further. I am looking forward to our sister in Morgellons and her new Leprosy medicines. Waiting to hear how she does.
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Post by cindycasey on Dec 6, 2006 0:32:45 GMT -5
Howdy Zabrubon! We always thought of you'ins Chicagahos as City Slickers! You must not be from Chicago, huh? Will keep you posted about those meds! Neils, Every time you mention Denny Tufanelli, I almost hurl!! I found it ironic after years of going to see Denny...I found out that the Wizard himself was in the same building at 450 Sutter but a few floors up in suite 1504! I was out there in Nov. and after my visit with Ginger Savely and Dr. Stricker (the Wizard) I just had to stop on the 13th floor to peek in and see that Denny still had an office full of patients and was running them through like cattle. Some things never change. I wished at that moment that I had some Morgellons literature on me to leave with his receptionist but didn't...not this time I didn't. I did at one time leave a bunch of Morgellons brochures in the UCSF Derm. Clinic on Divisadero. Cindy
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Post by zabrubon on Dec 8, 2006 0:42:40 GMT -5
No Cindy, no city slicker here, just a good old fashioned buckeye. The kind that says "hello" to everyone and loves a good old fashioned conversation. However, I am a die hard "White Sox" fan, have been for twenty years, Go Sox. ) But my family comes from down south, West Virginia. Fact is, we have decided if ever the U.S. is attacked, my immediate family is going to the hills of West Virginia. No terrorist in his right mind would go up in them thar hills with the crazy hillbillies. They all owen shot guns and would love nuthin better than to shoot someone. ) Ha. But back to basics, perhaps I should see your doctor. Sounds like he cares. Chicago Bonnie from the hills.
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Post by belikewater on Dec 8, 2006 10:50:14 GMT -5
zabrubon, Great Appalachia story. I hope there's room for me, I love that Virginia accent. Also not fond of revenooers
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Post by zabrubon on Dec 9, 2006 3:27:11 GMT -5
Cindy, there is plenty of rooms in them thar hills, just be ready to use the out houses, no indoor plumbing. But lots of fried chicken for supper and plenty of tobacco chewen.
I will be along the Ohio River on the WV side, close to Marietta.
Hillbilly Bonnie
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