Leprosy Genes

Edward Glamkowski writes "Science Daily (among others) has an article about host genes that make people vulnerable to leprosy. Appearently the disease still affects over one million people in 91 countries today. "This is the second study, published in 2003 by McGill/CGDN scientists, that illustrates the importance of host genes in infectious disease." Appearently they did a study on Legionnaire's disease as well and plan on studying malaria and TB."

Comments

intracellular pathogens

[Bowling Moses]

Before anybody asks how they're linked, one way is that they all at some point reside inside the cells of their unfortunate host:
Mycobacterium leprae is the causative agent of leprosy aka Hansen's Disease and invades neurons.
Mycobacterium tuberculosis causes tuberculosis, and during the course of infection can reside inside of macrophages.
Plasmodium falciparum causes malaria, and invades red blood cells.
Legionella pneumophila causes Legionnaire's Disease aka Legionellosis, and at one point in infection resides inside lung cells.
Interestingly, except for P. falciparum these pathogens are bacteria. P. falciparum is a single cellular eukaryote.

Hansen's Disease is not Biblical Leprosy

[PepperedApple]

I learned in a class that the leprosy in the Bible is not the same as Hansen's Disease, or the modern day leprosy. this explains some of the differences.