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27th January 2025
01:41pm GMT
The HSE has issued a warning after a case of leprosy was diagnosed in the Republic of Ireland in 2024.
Only five cases have been discovered in Ireland in the last decade.
According to reports, this is the first case of leprosy identified in the southwest of the country.
The recent case presented a major challenge for healthcare workers. Following the case, healthcare staff called for guidelines to be introduced after the rare case was diagnosed.
It is understood that the patient was aged in their 30s and they were living with eight other adults in Ireland.
They were reportedly living in southern Brazil before moving to Ireland in 2022.
The patient presented with symptoms like pain and numbness in their right arm and several raised, light-coloured skin lesions on their face, arms, legs, and chest.
They were then officially diagnosed with leprosy in the summer of 2024, according to a report by the medical journal Eurosurveillance.
The patient was treated with multi-drug therapy.
Leprosy is curable but it is an infectious disease.
You can only catch it if you come into close and repeated contact with nose and mouth droplets from someone with untreated leprosy.
The main symptoms of leprosy include disfiguring sores and bumps that don't go away after weeks or months.
They look flat and paler than the skin around them.
Other symptoms include stiff, thick, or dry skin, growths on your skin, and lumps or swelling on your face and ears.
Symptoms may not appear for three to five years after a person is infected.
The long incubation period can make it difficult for doctors to diagnose the disease.
