Almost every disability caused by leprosy traces back to the same thing: the years between the first sign and the first diagnosis. Those years are not spent waiting for a hospital. They are spent not knowing there is anything to look for.
What you are looking for
A patch of skin, flat, usually paler than the skin around it, sometimes slightly reddish. It does not itch. It does not hurt. That last part is exactly the point — it does not feel anything at all.
How to test it
Take a wisp of cotton wool. Sit with someone you trust. Close your eyes. Ask them to touch the patch and then the normal skin beside it, in random order, and to say nothing.
If you can tell every time, the patch is not what we are describing. If there are touches you do not register at all, go to a doctor this week.
What happens if you go early
Multi-drug therapy is free at every government health centre. Six to twelve months and the infection is gone. Caught before nerve damage sets in, you keep full use of your hands and feet, and nobody ever needs to know unless you choose to tell them.
What happens if you wait
The nerve damage does not reverse. That is the whole difference, and it is decided in the first year.
If you are afraid of what a diagnosis will do to your family or your work, call us before you call anyone else. We have sat with that fear several thousand times.
If this was useful, fund the work behind it
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