Our researchers in India have been looking at the extent to which leprosy bacteria can also be found within soil and water.
They have been looking at remote villages in India where there is a high level of leprosy transmission and only one water source per community, which can severely limit sanitation and hygiene for everyone dependent on it.
So far they have identified a link between leprosy DNA that they found in soil and water and new cases of leprosy that have been identified in 20 separate families.
Over the last 20 years, our team in Bangladesh has been collecting information about the contacts of people affected by leprosy through the COCOA (Contact Cohorts Analysis) study. The study reveals that fewer than 2% of people who have lived with a person affected by leprosy will contract this disease.
The study provided us with important details as homes with cases of PB leprosy see transmission at a rate of around 4 per 1000 household contacts per year. In households with cases of MB leprosy, this rate rises to around 13 per 1000 per year.
Our scientists in India have been tracking the spread of leprosy within an eight block radius of high leprosy transmission in Purulia, West Bengal.
They have taken samples from 112 people who have been diagnosed with leprosy and their close contacts so that they can be tested for genotypes – which is like strain typing - to connect cases carrying closely related versions of M.leprae.
What we learn from genotyping will help us to identify the source of transmission, which will direct the work of our field teams towards the most likely place to find further cases of leprosy.
