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.'"

Comments

Re:Leprosy can be cured.

[Mojofreem]

Leprosy is caused by a bacterial infection, and is easily cured with common antibiotics.

Re:Leprosy can be cured.

[snowgirl]

Mod parent up. Leprosy is no longer an issue. Antibiotics FTW.

Not only this but leprosy is like the bitch version of a bacterial infection. Most of the time, you have to be predisposed to being able to acquire it anyways (or immunocompromised, but that's true with any bacteria/fungus/virus). It's basically somewhere around 10% of the population that can actually acquire leprosy... everyone else could pretty much walk hand in hand with a leper and never catch a thing.