...or can you?!
I'm just throwing this out there because it is curious.
When I was young I remember being told that you could catch leprosy from armadillos. Later in life, I was told by a health-care professional that in the wild armadillos do not carry the disease. The relationship between armadillos and leprosy came about because scientists discovered the little critters were the only thing they could find that could contract the human disease, which was done in order to study and work on treatments.
I remember "googling" for this and finding a story about a facility in Louisiana (I think) where these studies had been going on and that something went wrong resulting in infected armadillos escaping into the wild. It seems there are questions about wether or not the infected animals were captured or went on the spread the disease to other armadillos.
The medical professional I spoke with seemed to think that the infected ones never intermingled with the wild ones and that catching leprosy from armadillos was a misconception.
Anyway, G's 70-ish-years-old uncle has just been diagnosed with the disease. The Dr.s have told him that he contracted it from years of working in his garden that was contaminated with armadillo feces. The uncle has started a three-year treatment process.
hmmmmm...
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2 comments:
Oh wow, that's wild! I hope he's going to be ok, is it curable? What is the treatment? Does the disease impact the armadillos, or are they just carriers? Guess I need to go Google this, and also make sure to wear my garden gloves when digging in the dirt!
How awful for the man!!! And what a shock for him!!! I didn't know that it was possible to cure it - I hope the course of treatment is successful.
There are a lot of possible diseases to be picked up from the soil - especially in warmer parts of the country - but I wouldn't have thought of any problems from armadillo feces. How many armadillos were present in his gardens??
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