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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.'"
Correlation does not imply causation. It could be that the patient took some effective homeopathic medicines after seeing her Chiropractor and that's what cured the leprosy.
+1 introspective
0 = 1 + e^(Alt something)
Leprosy is caused by a bacterial infection, and is easily cured with common antibiotics.
That's it, I'm not going to check the tire pressure with my mouth any more.
Damn you Lord Foul! Must you corrupt these beautiful creatures and turn them into servants of despite?
"Waste not one watt!" - CZ
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
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.
WARNING! This girl exceeds the MAXIMUM SAFE standards established by the FDA for BRATTINESS
Well, if you do, remember the advice from the article - wash your tires It's called "getting rid of the evidence.".
And if you;re in the US, run them over a few times to make sure they're really dead, and not just faking it. Your insurance rates won't go up as much if they have to pay for a funeral instead of 50 years of medical expenses.
So, someone needs an expert to tell them not to play in poop? Don't mothers teach their kids not to play with the "clay" in the sandbox any more?