For thousands of years, one of the most terrifying and destructive diseases which has afflicted humanity has been leprosy.

Leprosy is a condition that affects the nerves and skin, and in extreme cases it can result in the loss of appendages.

Those who were diagnosed with leprosy

would often be consigned to a lifetime of social ostracism, but thankfully that's

no longer the case. Learn more about leprosy, aka Hansen's Disease, its past and its future,

on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Leprese is considered by many to be the oldest communicable disease in human history.

It's impossible to know what the first disease actually was as it would have manifested before written history.

It could have been

something like tuberculosis but we do have genetic evidence for leprosy

possibly dating back 10 million years which might have affected early hominid

ancestors. Genetic analysis shows that leprosy probably

originated somewhere in East Africa or the Middle East. Leprosy is caused by a bacteria

known as mysobacterium lepre. It's almost exclusively spread through

human to human contact. Leprosy spread as humans began to migrate and trade

with other civilizations. As humans left Africa they took the leprosy bacteria with them and

spread it as they slowly traveled across the globe. If people know anything

about leprosy, it's the horrific symptoms that manifest in those that suffer from it.

Leprosy affects the skin and the nervous system outside of the brain and spinal cord.

The bacteria can have an incubation period that lasts anywhere from a few months

up to 20 years. Early symptoms usually consist of a skin rash for which the sufferer has no feeling.

As the disease spreads, it can result in the inability to feel pain which can result in unintended injuries and it can also result in the absorption of cartilage into the tissue particularly in the nose

As the disease spreads it can result in severe skin

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