FLORIDA is now facing a public health emergency as leprosy cases surge, prompting the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (USCDC) to raise an alarm over an endemic outbreak in the Central Region.
The USCDC suggests that Florida State’s Central area may have become an “endemic location” for leprosy, also known as Hansen’s Disease.
And the Central Region of Florida is seeing a rise in locally-acquired cases, accounting for 81% of reported cases in the state and a fifth of all cases in the US.
The number of cases in the southeastern side of the US more than doubled over the last decade.
The year 2020 witnessed 159 new cases of leprosy in the US, with Florida topping the chart as the state with the most cases.
The CDC report said leprosy is typically brought to the US by individuals who had emigrated from leprosy-endemic areas.
However, recent data indicates that approximately 34% of new case-patients during 2015–20 appeared to have locally acquired the disease.
The CDC has now labeled leprosy as an endemic in the South-Eastern US, based on mounting epidemiological evidence.
While overall reported leprosy cases fell in the US between 2019 and 2020, the rise in Central Florida has become a cause for concern.
The CDC urges caution for travelers to this area and advises healthcare professionals to consider leprosy in the appropriate clinical context even in the absence of other risk factors.
Authorities are closely monitoring the situation, and efforts to control the spread of the disease are underway.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) said that worldwide, the number of leprosy cases reported annually has decreased from more than 5 million in the 1980s to 200,000 by 2020.
