Editing Leprosy (section)

=== Discovery and scientific progress ===
[[File:Distribution of leprosy around the world Wellcome L0032805.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|Distribution of leprosy around the world in 1891]]Literary attestation of leprosy is unclear because of the ambiguity of many early sources, including the Indian [[Atharvaveda]] and Kausika Sutra, the Egyptian [[Ebers Papyrus]], and the [[Hebrew Bible]]'s various sections regarding signs of impurity (''[[tzaraath]]'').<ref>{{cite book |vauthors=Lendrum FC |date=1954 |contribution=The Name 'Leprosy' |title=Etc: A Review of General Semantics |volume=12 |issue=1 |jstor=24234298 |pages=37–47 |publisher=Institute of General Semantics |contribution-url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/24234298 |access-date=13 April 2022 |archive-date=13 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220413192502/https://www.jstor.org/stable/24234298 |url-status=live }}</ref> Leprotic symptoms are attested in the Indian doctor [[Sushruta]]'s [[Sushruta Samhita|''Compendium'']], originally dating to c.&nbsp;600&nbsp;BC but only surviving in emended texts no earlier than the 5th century BC. Symptoms consistent with leprosy were possibly described by [[Hippocrates]] in 460&nbsp;BC.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=2021-12-10 |title=Mycobacterium leprae: A historical study on the origins of leprosy and its social stigma |url=https://www.infezmed.it/media/journal/Vol_29_4_2021_18.pdf |journal=Infezioni in Medicina |volume=29 |issue=4 |doi=10.53854/liim-2904-18 |pmc=8805473 |pmid=35146374 |pages=623–632 | vauthors = Santacroce L, Del Prete R, Charitos IA, Bottalico L }}</ref> However, Hansen's disease probably did not exist in Greece or the Middle East before the [[Common Era]].<ref name="Haubrich2003">{{cite book|first=William S. |last=Haubrich|title=Medical Meanings: A Glossary of Word Origins|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NXmlIwkQBLAC&pg=PA133 |year=2003 |publisher=ACP Press|isbn=978-1-930513-49-5|page=133}}</ref><ref name="WilkinsEvans2013">{{cite book|first1=Michael |last1=Wilkins|first2=Craig A. |last2=Evans|first3=Darrell |last3=Bock|first4=Andreas J. |last4=Köstenberger|title=The Gospels and Acts|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QPKsBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT194|date=1 October 2013|publisher=B&H |isbn=978-1-4336-8101-1|page=194|access-date=15 July 2018|archive-date=12 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230112232559/https://books.google.com/books?id=QPKsBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT194|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Encyclopedia of Jewish Medical Ethics |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aaklGZAID08C&pg=PA951|year=2003|publisher=Feldheim Publishers|isbn=978-1-58330-592-8|page=951}}</ref> In 1846, [[Francis Adams (translator)|Francis Adams]] produced ''The Seven Books of Paulus Aegineta'' which included a commentary on all medical and surgical knowledge and descriptions and remedies to do with leprosy from the Romans, Greeks, and Arabs.<ref>{{cite book |first=Francis |last=Adams |title=The Seven Books of Paulus Aegineta: Translated from the Greek with Commentary Embracing a Complete View of the Knowledge Possessed by the Greeks, Romans and Arabians on all Subjects Connected with Medicine and Surgery |location=London |publisher=Sydenham Society |year=1678}}</ref><ref>Roman: [[Celsus]], [[Pliny the Elder|Pliny]]<!--presumably as the Younger was not a scientist-->, [[Serenus Samonicus]], [[Scribonius Largus]], [[Caelius Aurelianus]], [[Themison of Laodicea|Themison]], [[Octavius Horatianus]], [[Marcellus the Emperic]]; Greek: [[Aretaeus]], [[Plutarch]], [[Galen]], [[Oribasius]], Aetius ([[Aëtius of Amida]] or [[Sicamus Aëtius]])<!--assuming they were not distinguished, but perhaps one of the other was meant-->, [[Joannes Actuarius|Actuarius]], Nonnus,<!--unclear who this refers to – none of the people of this name with articles were physicians--> [[Psellus]], Leo,<!--can this be disambiguated?--> [[Myrepsus]]; Arabic: [[Scrapion]], [[Ibn Zuhr|Avenzoar]], [[Al-Zahrawi|Albucasis]], [['Ali ibn al-'Abbas al-Majusi|Haly Abbas]] translated by [[Stephanus Antiochensis]], [[Alsharavius]], Rhases ([[Abū Bakr al-Rāzī]]), and [[Guido de Cauliaco]].</ref>

Leprosy did not exist in the Americas before [[European colonization of the Americas|colonization]] by modern Europeans<ref name="Rotberg2001">{{cite book|first=Robert I. |last=Rotberg|title=Population History and the Family: A Journal of Interdisciplinary History Reader|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OiQM-GIe69kC&pg=PA132|year=2001|publisher=MIT Press|isbn=978-0-262-68130-8|page=132}}</ref> nor did it exist in [[Polynesia]] until the middle of the 19th century.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Montgomerie JZ | title = Leprosy in New Zealand | journal = The Journal of the Polynesian Society | volume = 97 | issue = 2 | pages = 115–152 | date = 1988 | pmid = 11617451 | url = http://www.jps.auckland.ac.nz/document/Volume_97_1988/Volume_97%2C_No._2/Leprosy_in_New_Zealand%2C_by_J._Z._Montgomerie%2C_p_115-152?action=null | access-date = 3 September 2019 | archive-date = 11 February 2018 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180211031412/http://www.jps.auckland.ac.nz/document/Volume_97_1988/Volume_97%2C_No._2/Leprosy_in_New_Zealand%2C_by_J._Z._Montgomerie%2C_p_115-152?action=null | url-status = live }}</ref> The causative agent of leprosy, ''M. leprae'', was discovered by [[Gerhard Armauer Hansen]] in [[Union between Sweden and Norway|Norway]] in 1873, making it one of the first species of pathogenic bacteria identified.<ref name="Irgens_2002">{{cite journal | vauthors = Irgens LM | title = Oppdagelsen av leprabasillen |trans-title = The discovery of the leprosy bacillus |language=no | journal = Tidsskrift for den Norske Laegeforening | volume = 122 | issue = 7 | pages = 708–709 | date = March 2002 | pmid = 11998735 }}</ref>