Lies, Damned Lies, Metrics & Semantics: Exploring definitions of the end of Leprosy (Hansen’s Disease) & their implications

Abstract

Many a statistic is false on its face. It gets by only because the magic of numbers brings about a suspension of common sense. Leprosy (also known as Hansen’s Disease), is an infectious disease that is both potentially disabling and highly stigmatised. Leprosy can cause blindness, disfigurement and deformity. This disease is named after G. H. Armauer Hansen, a physician who identified the causative agent, Mycobacterium leprae, in Norway in 1873. Mycobacterium leprae is a strongly acid-fast rod-shaped organism with parallel sides and rounded ends (see Figure One), rather similar to the tubercle bacillus.