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'''[[Leprosy]]''' was said to be first recognized in the [[ancient civilization]]s of '''[[China]]''', [[Egypt]], and [[India]], according to the [[World Health Organization]] (WHO).<ref>[https://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs101/en/ WHO | Leprosy Factsheet]</ref> Leprosy, also known as '''Hansen's disease''', was officially eliminated at the national level in China by 1982, meaning prevalence is lower than 1 in 100,000. There are 3,510 active cases today. Though leprosy has been brought under control in general, the situation in some areas is worsening, according to China's [[Ministry of Health (China)|Ministry of Health]]. In the past, leprosy sufferers were ostracized by their communities as the disease was incurable, disfiguring, and wrongly thought to be highly infectious.
==Epidemiology==
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500,000 cases of leprosy were registered in China between 1950 and 2002.<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Chen XS, Li WZ, Jiang C, Ye GY |title=Leprosy in China: epidemiological trends between 1949 and 1998 |journal=Bull. World Health Organ. |volume=79 |issue=4 |pages=306–12 |year=2001 |pmid=11357209 |pmc=2566398 |url=http://www.scielosp.org/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0042-96862001000400007&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en |issn=0042-9686 }}</ref> Most of these sufferers have been cured but approximately 6,000 active cases remain today and about 2,000 new cases are detected and registered every year. Many more cases are not registered, partly through ignorance, but also because of the stigma associated with the disease. The number of cases reported has varied over time, with the number of cases declining between 1985 and 1993 but staying flat between 1994 and 2001.<ref>{{cite journal|vauthors=Shen JP, Gupte MD, Jiang C, Manickam P, Yu MW, Li WZ|date=June 2005|title=Trends of case detection and other indicators of leprosy in China during 1985–2002|journal=Chin. Med. Sci. J.|volume=20|issue=2|pages=77–82|pmid=16075742}}</ref>
There are estimates that show that there are 200,000 people in China today who have recovered from the disease but more than half (110,000) are disabled due to the disease, with conditions ranging from blindness to disfigurement. Although these former leprosy sufferers were cured in the last 50 years, many of them still suffer serious pain and difficulties because of these disabilities/deformities and the stigma. This social stigma has become the main problem in leprosy diagnosis and treatment, today.{{cn|date=April 2023}}
===Areas affected===
Mostly, cases of infection remain in impoverished parts in the southwestern provinces of [[Yunnan]], [[Guizhou]], and [[Sichuan]], and [[Tibet]] in the west and [[Hunan]] in the
===Transmission and pathology===
Contrary to popular belief, leprosy ranks
==Treatment==
In China, [[dapsone]] was used from 1946 to treat leprosy, but treatment of the disease took a leap in 1982 with the introduction of a largely successful [[multidrug therapy]] (MDT) using dapsone, [[rifampicin]], and [[clofazimine]]. Today, therapy takes six months to a year. MDT treatment has been made available by the WHO free of charge to all [[patient]]s worldwide since 1995, and provides a simple yet highly effective cure for all types of leprosy.<ref>[https://www.who.int/lep/en/ WHO | Leprosy Today]</ref> If diagnosed and treated early, the disease leaves no traces. But in some places in China, stigma still surrounds the disease and victims do not seek treatment until it is too late.{{cn|date=April 2023}}
==Stigma==
{{see also|Leprosy stigma#China}}
In current
==See also==
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