News Spitting Armadillos Blamed for Florida?s Emerging Leprosy Problem

[brassmonkey]

Health officials in Florida are urging residents to keep away from armadillos, which they suspect are the cause of an increasing number of cases of leprosy in the state. According to local media reports, nine people in the state have been diagnosed with the disease so far this year. Florida typically sees an annual total of 10 cases in an entire year. Doctors diagnosed the most recent case three weeks ago in Flagler County, on Florida?s east coast.

Earlier this week, Dr. Sunil Joshi of the Duval County Medical Society in Jacksonville told CNN that the uptick in leprosy cases may be due to rising real estate development in the area. As more houses are built, armadillos? homes are being destroyed, so they are out and about more often during the daytime and coming into contact with more people.

Armadillos are the only animals known to carry leprosy. A paper published by The New England Journal of Medicine in 2011 identified the same strain of bacteria in one wild armadillo and three leprosy patients.

http://www.newsweek.com/spitting-arm...problem-356823

[ruff]

Forget Leprosy, you'll probably get shot first if you come down here. We fucking shoot everybody.

[brassmonkey]

Originally Posted by ruff

Forget Leprosy, you'll probably get shot first if you come down here. We fucking shoot everybody.

been there a few times no issues. disney world and gone