Leprosy: the basics

Leprosy symptoms Leprosy primarily affects the peripheral nerves and secondarily involving skin and certain other tissues/organs in particular, the eye, mucosa of the nasal and upper respiratory tract and also the testes. It does not affect the central nervous system. Where the sensory nerves are damaged in varying degrees they cannot register pain. Where the eye is affected it can often lead to blindness. A myth that still prevails even in "educated" societies is …

…and feared. This is shown by its prominence in the Bible. In both the old and the new testaments leprosy was thought to be a punishment sent by god for sin. The sufferer was said to be in a state of tsara'ath or defilement. The Hebrew term was later translated to lepros, from which we get the word leprosy. Victims of the disease were shunned and sent to leper colonies that nobody would go near.