Leprosy found in U.S. school student

LOS ANGELES — A case of leprosy, extremely rare in the United States, has been diagnosed in a Southern California elementary school student, sending health officials scrambling to reassure parents and the public that the disease is hard to transmit and easy to treat.

Emails were sent to parents at the elementary school, where classrooms had been sanitized since the initial diagnosis, emphasizing how hard it is to contract leprosy and that there is no danger to the child’s classmates.

“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 U.S. sees only about 150 leprosy cases occur each year, and more than 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 be passed only through prolonged contact, and is fairly easily treated with antibiotics.

Those most at risk are family members who are in constant contact with an untreated person, and it is usually contracted by people who have travelled to places like India, Brazil and Angola where it’s more common.

County health officials would say only that the child got the disease through prolonged contact with another person who is not in the county.