Leprosy

This month, for the book club I'm in, we are reading Moloka'i which is a novel about the leper colony in Hawaii. It is a really good book and I realized while reading it that I don't really know that much about leprosy other than what's in the Bible. Upon further research, I found out that what is called leprosy today is not actually what leprosy was in the Bible. However, since it was translated as leprosy in the Bible, this created the idea that leprosy nowadays is super contagious, requiring people diagnosed with it to be sent to leper colonies. People still consider leprosy to be a really contagious disease.

The book, which takes place in the late 1800s and early 1900s, relates how scientists were trying to figure out the disease-both how it was spread and how to cure it. In my own research I found that scientists still aren't exactly sure how it's spread, but one thing is certain-it is not as contagious as people think. About 95% of people are naturally immune to it first of all. The disease is not spread by contact of the lesions as was once thought, but possibly by respiratory droplets. So you basically would get it much like you would catch a cold, except it's not that easy to catch and like I said, most people are naturally immune and can never get it. With all this information, I think it's even sadder that all these people were ripped from their families, some when they were just 7 years old, and sent to live in leper colonies in Hawaii. It was all so unnecessary!

What I learned: Leprosy is not very contagious and is a completely different disease than what is called leprosy in the Bible.