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Yes, an Armadillo Can Give You Leprosy
sciencehabit writes "For years, scientists have speculated that armadillos can pass on leprosy to humans, and that they are behind the few dozen cases of the disease that occur in the US every year. Now, they have evidence. A genetic study published in The New England Journal of Medicine shows that US armadillos and human patients share what seems to be a unique strain of the bacterium that causes leprosy. If an armadillo's blood 'got on my tires of my car from running [the animal] over, I would wash it down,' advises one expert. 'And I would not dig in soil that has a lot of armadillo excrement.'"
I've never run across a patient with leprosy but in The Journal of Chiropractic Medicine, I read about a person in Texas who went to her Chirporactor with leprosy sores. The Doctor performed some excellent manipulations which got the patient's nervous system in tip-top shape to battle the infection.
After intense treatments the leprosy was GONE.
Chiropractic Saves Lives!
Had Jack Hanna on the other night, Jack brought out an Armadillo and mentioned something out this. Not sure why I bothered to post this.
So how does it taste? I've never had one.
Fuck systemd. Fuck Redhat. Fuck Soylent, too. Wait, scratch the last one.
I'm slightly confused how blood on your car tires is a likely transfer case. Is it airborne, or contact based, or would you have to touch it and then rub your eyes or ingest it somehow? I don't know about you by the only time I touch my tires IS when I'm washing them down. And I guess maybe checking air-pressure. I've certainly never considered them particularly sanitary.
I've always claimed that leprosy comes from armadillos.
Why is this news? I caught an armadillo 20 (Twenty) years ago, and the next day read up on them and was shocked and terrified to learn they often carry leprosy.
Anyone who has watch "Royal Pains" knows this.
The dogcow says "Moof!"
We humans gave them leprosy to begin with. Leprosy was unknown in the new world before Columbus. Turns out this is just another case of mother nature wanting to kill everything.
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Armadillo's are the only non-human host of mycobacterium leprae and they can infect humans.
There are patterns to animal shit.
Damn you Lord Foul! Must you corrupt these beautiful creatures and turn them into servants of despite?
"Waste not one watt!" - CZ
You can learn to identify the characteristics of armadillo droppings, just as you can any other animal. As for knowing if a patch of dirt has some in it, well, if you are working in the yard/ground and you live in a region with armadillos, wear gloves and wash well afterwards. And if you do find the droppings and think you've been exposed, just go into the doctor and get tested. Simple as that.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
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Welcome to Slashdot, and thanks for bringing something new and original to the art of trolling! When I saw your recent chiropractic trolls, I thought you might be a flash in the pan, but now I see you are here for an extended stay. Thanks for bringing some levity into my otherwise boring day.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
Then just lay down armadillo food laced with bright purple dye?
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
I was planning on finally shoveling that pile of armadillo excrement in my back yard after work today, but I'm glad I caught this at work. Phew!
Prove it.
Now I know the real reason we got Texas back from Mexico!
at least now I know why I feel so numb after working all day on my armadillo farm.
For conscience is the wound, and there's naught to staunch it
Have you just ruined the entire Chronicles of Thomas Covenant series for me?
Note to anyone who thinks spun is joking:
Go click on "dr" bobs user page. The name and high UID alone should be a clue. Yes, he is a troll, and yes, he is specifically posting chiro/alt-med comments that he knows will get a reaction. Further to this, the entire thread above this post should serve as proof that it's working.
Honestly, it never ceases to amaze me the number of otherwise intelligent people who will fall for a troll posting deliberate flamebait. At least this one is more subtle than most.
Erotic is when you use a feather. Exotic is when you use the whole chicken.
as if the other creepies weren't enough....
A varmint rifle and a shovel. Turn the critter into a red mist from a distance, bury it later if it's not in a convenient spot.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
It's actually pretty funny. Slashdot is one of the more rational and skeptical sites on the Internet. Almost anyplace else, you would get an almost equal number of believers defending the guy. There really are few places less inviting to a real chiropractor. He gives a few hints as to his true nature, I especially like "Subluxations are worse than cancer." Hahaha, oh, that's rich. Unless you really have cancer, in which case I imagine it must feel fairly insulting. "Sorry to hear about your pinched nerve, dude, now pass me my fucking wig, I'm done throwing up."
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
Oddly enough, this has been my family's motto for five generations.
This next song is very sad. Please clap along. -- Robin Zander
Washing off the tire would be a good idea because the bacteria survives well, particularly in soil/sand/etc. If you run over the armadillo and then park in your garage, there's a good chance the little m. leprae are going to still be alive. Washing the tire off won't remove that possibility entirely, but it will get rid of most of them, reducing your risk significantly. And even if they do have a cure, I'd hate to have symptoms (irreversible) before they realized the need for treatment.
More importantly, this is fairly old news: Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
'And I would not dig in soil that has a lot of armadillo excrement.'
I can think of several reasons other than leprosy why I would avoid doing this.
Chiropractic adjustments for newborn babies is barbarous! Most of my fellow Chiros will refuse to see children under 3, by the time the spine has had time to set.
^ that is pure gold
0 = 1 + e^(Alt something)
With the caveat that you also have to be in the 5% of people that don't have a natural immunity to it already.
I can't go digging in soil with Armadillo excrement? Well there goes my vacation plans!
I8-D
spun chk ur emailz...
Furthermore, if an armadillo were to find itself in my path when I was driving a tank, and I drove over it a few thousand times, reversing and going over it again ad nauseum, then aimed the main turret at it for a quick blast with a few armor-piercing shells, then I got out and kicked it in the nuts a few times while cursing its mom, I would not attend its funeral.
When you eat the damn thing...of course you will get leprosy...
Slashdot is one of the more rational and skeptical sites on the Internet.
Have you any idea how much it scares me that this is true?
Ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.
I used to work in Sugar Land TX, and we had armadillos and other critters wandering around the office park on a regular basis. In real life, armadillos are cute. They're almost completely blind, so if you are quiet and work closer to them from downwind you can get quite close. They are surprisingly fast (for short distances), grubbing around in the grass looking for bugs and such. Their ears wiggle and they have a cartoony appearance.
If they didn't smell so much they'd probably make an interesting pet - except for the obvious problem cited here, the fact that they're wild, nocturnal, not housebroken, and are illegal in some states.
It's easier to be a result of the past, but more fun to be a cause of the future! http://www.spacefinancegroup.com/
Q: What did the leper say to the prostitute?
A: Keep the tip.
From a parenting book:
Q. Do diapers give you leprosy?
A. No. Its the pee and the poopoo that give you leprosy. Diapers give you hives.
But seriously, I'm not surprised that there is an animal/human vector for what is, after all, a virological disease.
So let go of that armadillo, Joe. You might catch something.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
So that's what killed The Clash. Mystery solved.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Well, I suppose it should scare you. This is as good as it gets.
Why is it that the older I get, the dumber people appear? Luckily, there is a corollary: the older I get, the less I care. I figure, the world must have always been this way, right? They just lied to us when we were kids, they didn't want us to worry that clowns were running the place. But the world shambles on in its moronic fashion, somehow lurching past one near disaster after another. It gives one some comfort to realize that, as dumb as things are, we've managed to make do this far.
Maybe intelligence is overrated? All it seems to have brought me are painful insights...
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
Can't you cure leprosy with Neosporin?
But, will it make you breakfast the next morning?
Bab72 (Not my real name)
I guess I went through another step between the two - when I realized what freakshow this is, I thought I could change anything. When I realized that it won't happen, I went into caring less mode. But yes, you are right, it is amazing how resilient the whole thing proves to be. Nature of life, I guess - evolution doesn't optimize towards the best, only towards anything that is just barely working good enough. That's what we are stuck with - and intelligence only shows you how hard "barely good enough" actually sucks compared to what could be. Probably not a beneficial trait in the long run, evolutionary speaking...
Ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.
Why is this tagged as JAMA? It's from the NEJM.
Am I only one who has no clue how to tell if excrement is from an armadillo or not? Much less whether a patch of dirt has a lot in it?
It doesn't matter. Just run this and you'll be fine:
sudo apt-get uninstall armadillo
https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/armadillo/
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
You can get chlamydia from a koala, those adorable little sluts.
If you're having marital relations with a koala, chlamydia is probably the least of your problems.
Armadillo licking parties, science spoils everything. I wondered why I couldn't feel my tongue recently...
On y va, qui mal y pense!
OA : "To learn more about the home-grown U.S. cases, Truman collaborated with Stewart Cole at the Global Health Institute at the Ãcole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland, and other scientists. They captured wild armadillos in five southern states, performed whole-genome sequencing of M. leprae found in one of them, and compared it to the whole genome of bacteria isolated from the skin of three patients. All four strains were essentially the same, and, interestingly, did not match leprosy strains reported in other parts of the world, suggesting this one was unique to the United States"
Blame Storrs and Kirchheimer I say...
http://healthmad.com/conditions-and-diseases/the-ancient-armadillo-fights-a-war-against-disease/
"Storrs, who had been studying armadillos for some time, believed that they might make suitable candidates for experiments on leprosy"
"In 1970 Storrs joined forces with Kirchheimer, who was with the U.S. Public Service Hospital at Carville, Louisiana, and began to carry out experiments on armadillos. In the beginning, unrelated animals captured in the wild were inoculated with the leprosy bacillus. Proof that armadillos were susceptible to the disease came when one of the animals developed it and died."
I have my comment point cutoff set to +5, and can't see the word "trousers" anywhere.