Leprosy in Vienna: First case in decades, the city shocked!

Leprosy in Vienna: First case in decades, the city shocked!

Wien, Österreich - A worrying case is currently making headlines in Vienna: A tour guide over 60 is infected with leprosy, an illness that was considered largely eradicated in Europe. The man noticed the first symptoms such as paralysis, numbness feelings and rashes a year and a half ago, which were originally classified as harmless. Various visits to doctors and alternative doctors finally led to a remote diagnosis by a friend in Berlin who gave the decisive hint. The diagnosis was confirmed in the AKH Vienna: The man suffers from lepromatous leprosy, the most acute and most dangerous form of this infectious disease.

lepras, also known as a leprit, is caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium leprae or mycobacterium lepromatosis. This chronic disease can spread throughout the body, but can only be transferred to intensive and long -lasting contact. The Viennese's exact location remains unclear, since the incubation period of the disease can surprisingly be up to 20 years. The man was often traveling in Africa and Asia professionally, which gives potential contact options for infected people.

historical and social dimension of Lepra

lepra is one of the oldest known diseases of mankind and probably originated in East Africa or India. Historical records indicate that it was detected in India 4,000 years ago. In the Middle Ages, it was considered very contagious and led to the social exclusion of the sick. People with leprosy often had to live outside of human settlements because they were stigmatized as "leper". The disease reached its peak in Europe in the 13th century and largely disappeared until the 16th century. Despite its extensive absence in recent centuries, the latest appearance of a case in Vienna is an alarming sign of the return of leprosy in Europe.

Science, however, has made progress. Lepras can now be curable with combination therapy from antibiotics, and the World Health Organization (WHO) pursues the goal of exterminating the disease. New infections occur primarily in developing countries worldwide, while new diseases in Europe have dropped greatly; In 2019, only 42 new cases were registered. But the Viennese case shows that one should not be careless in this country either.

research on leprosy and genetic diversity

A current research project, which is led by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Human History and several universities, has discovered a great genetic diversity of the leprosy regulators in medieval Europe. This suggests that several tribes of leprosy bacteria were common in Europe, and further studies indicate that the history of transmission has not yet been completely decrypted. Historical genomes of the bacterium have been reconstructed from samples that are dated to the period from 400 to 1400 AD, and some of these tribes still exist today. According to Professor Johannes Krause, the main author of the study, an unexpected genetic diversity was found in the pathogens, which indicates that Lepras was much more common in the past.

As in the case of the Viennese tour guide, the return of leprosy in Europe is seen as a wake -up call for medical specialists and society. It is to be hoped that the patient will soon be healed in the Vienna AKH and that the case will be entered into history as an isolated event. However, experience and knowledge from this case could be crucial to prevent future outbreaks and to deepen the knowledge of leprosy in modern medicine.