Presumably, everyone should have heard of the three words "infectious disease", which refers to diseases with the three characteristics of infectious sources, transmission routes and susceptible populations, such as viral hepatitis and AIDS are typical infectious diseases.
In addition, leprosy is also one of the infectious diseases, it is a chronic, contact, infectious disease induced by leprosy infection.
After infection with Leprosy, the virus invades the skin and nervous system of an infected person, and if left untreated, the patient's skin, nerves, limbs, and eyes can be subject to progressive, permanent damage.
According to the data, the leprosy epidemic has a long history and is widely distributed, which has caused disasters to the people in the endemic areas.
So the question is, leprosy is contagious, what is its route of transmission, and how to prevent it? According to the data available to the clinic, the mode of transmission of leprosy mainly includes direct contact and indirect contact:
1. Direct contact
This mode of infection is that in the process of direct contact between healthy people and infected people and patients who have become ill, through the skin or mucous membrane damage containing leprosy, contact with the skin or mucous membrane damage of healthy people, which eventually leads to the spread of the disease to each other.
This mode of infection is generally common in contact with patients who have long-term close contact. Although the closeness of exposure is associated with the onset of infection, this does not exclude the possibility of occasional exposure to transmission;
2. Indirect contact
Unlike other pathogenic bacteria, Leprosy can survive for a long time even when it leaves the human body. Especially in low temperature environments, the survival time will be longer.
Related studies have shown that in the low temperature environment of minus 13 to 60 ° C, the virus can even survive for several months, while in the environment of 0 ° C, it can survive for 2-3 weeks.
Healthy people can be infected with leprosy patients through certain vectors, such as contact with clothing, bedding, towels or tableware worn by the patient, etc., which may occur. It is just that the possibility of indirect infection is lower than the possibility of direct infection, but since it may exist, this channel of infection cannot be ignored.
In addition to the above two major modes of transmission, there are other ways of infection!
Clinically, Bacillus leprosy can be transmitted through countless channels, such as the skin, respiratory tract and digestive tract.
In recent years, there are also experts in the clinic who have emphasized the way of transmitting leprosy in the respiratory tract, the nasal mucosa can excrete leprosy, and the leprosy bacteria carried in the nasal secretions can survive for a considerable period of time after leaving the human body, and the dust and droplets carrying germs may enter the respiratory tract of healthy people to cause infection.
In addition, the use of blood sucking worms as a vector can also lead to infection. However, these views are still somewhat controversial in the clinic, and the epidemiology of leprosy has not been confirmed.
It should be noted here that although there is not enough evidence to confirm what the main route of transmission of leprosy is, the body's own resistance and immunity undoubtedly play a leading role in the infection process.
Therefore, in addition to avoiding intimate contact with leprosy patients and the items used by patients in life, we must also improve our autoimmune function, and the improvement of immune function needs to start from the aspect of life, such as active physical exercise, maintain adequate rest, have enough sleep time, regular sports, etc., are ways to improve immune function.