Narrations on Leper and Leprosy: A Critical Study
Abstract
Leprosy is an infectious disease caused by a bacterium called Mycobacterium leprae. Its simplest form primarily affects the skin, causing swollen, reddish patches. If the body’s immune system fights off the disease, these patches disappear. However, if the immune system fails to cope with, it may aggravate into three forms: the lepromatous type, or the tuberculosis type, or the borderline type, which is somewhere in between the other two types.[i]
[i] Donnelly, Karen J., Leprosy: Hansen’s Disease (New York: The Rosen Publishing Group Inc., 2006) p.60