Leprosy in the Southland?
Leprosy may be a major topic on campuses as 19,000 students return to class Tuesday in the Jurupa Unified School District near Riverside after the Labor Day holiday.
That’s because district officials say they acted out of an abundance of caution in sending a letter to parents warning that two students at Indian Hills Elementary School had symptoms consistent with leprosy.
“We wanted parents of the students to know, we wanted to get ahead of any rumors and make sure they had access to ample information,” Superintendent Elliott Duchon told the Press-Enterprise over the holiday. The district is based in Jurupa Valley,east of the city of Riverside in Riverside County.
Riverside County Director of Disease and Control Barbara Cole told a TV reporter that a nurse at the school contacted the health agency on Friday. She said the department is running tests and working on talking with the two students’ parents.
It was unclear what the symptoms were, or if the two students are related.
Leprosy is still alarming to most people due to portrayals through history of the horrible effects of the disease. Leprosy victims were often banished throughout history. But national health officials downplay the effects of the disease in modern-day society, saying it’s not very contagious and is high treatable.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services website, leprosy — or Hansen’s disease — “is not highly transmissible, is very treatable, and, with early diagnosis and treatment, is not disabling.”
The agency also says that 95 percent of the world’s population is naturally immune to the disease.
— Staff and wire reports