berninicaco3

I've just read / and it was mentioned here, that leprosy can remain dormant for years.

It caused me to reflect on my own experience with MRSA/staph infection. My neighbor across the street just got MRSA last week so it's fresh on my mind.

I'd learned that staphylococcus aureus is just a normal part of literally everyone's skin biome, and unavoidable, and generally non threatening.
Until, most commonly, you get a deep cut (my neighbor) or infected ingrown hairs (my experience) and the staph bacteria get under the skin and multiply unchecked.

Or for another comparison, I am among the last generation to get chicken pox before the vaccine was available in my country. I later learned I likely still have the virus, dormant and wholly suppressed by my immune system. In 50 years when I'm old and immunocompromised there's a chance of shingles.

.... mrsa, chicken pox, the question I'm building to is, what are the chances I've already been exposed to leprosy several times in my life, or even have the bacteria on my skin right now, but due to good health nothing is coming of it?

Does the bacteria require a human host, or it thrives in warm climates generally? Err, like, what are the factors that create an endemic area?

Thinking outloud, areas where leprosy is common, are antibiotics both cheap and available and the concern is more public education and stigma?

Education issue: people don't know early signs/symptoms. Don't know where to go if they do recognize.

Stigma issue: people do recognize symptoms but delay treatment out of shame and denial.

This reminds me now of my friend in Mexico who caught tuberculosis a few years ago. She's a white-collar paid professional in a major city with access to modern healthcare, so availability of care was never in question.

However, she still paid extra for private treatment with stricter privacy so that even the fact that she ever had tuberculosis at all would never go on record. Something about publicly-available healthcare in Mexico, and zero equivalent to our own HIPAA laws.

I bring this up because in the above example, one could imagine fear stigma leading to delayed treatment even among those with access to treatment, making everything so much worse. Which is addressable with information/education campaigns and marketing advertising used for good.

Here in the US, I think both TB and leprosy would be treated with an "omg, wtf, that's wild!!" reaction. It's too rare to even have a stigma attached any more. If I got leprosy, it would be like something out of mythology I might even drop into conversation at board game night (after a quick and successful cure of course)

But STDs have deep stigmas, to the point that even some people with HIV won't disclose it, which is dangerous to everyone. Other incredibly common STDs like herpes simplex, I've observed some public health campaigns trying to de-stigmatize, so that people stop hiding it.
Or bed bugs, or fleas, or cockroaches: these are common pests that are somehow associated with filth and poverty, and yet, any home can get an infestation. The difference being that a wealthy household can pay for professional treatment promptly. But many, would keep a bed bug problem at home on the down-low out of shame, hoping to quietly treat them without anyone in their social or work circles being the wiser.