According a research letter published by Nathoo and his colleagues in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, Central Florida has reported among the highest rates of leprosy in the United States.
In 2020, 159 cases were reported nationwide, compared with 200,000 new cases each year around the world, according to the World Health Organization. The new letter says Central Florida accounted for 81% of cases in Florida and nearly 1 out of 5 leprosy cases nationwide.
Gotta be super really for reals for a minute: armadillos are a big vector for this, and they’ve expanded across the southeast in recent years.
Only maybe a decade ago, I’d never seen an armadillo outside of an LCD (or CRT) screen, and now they’re regularly run over on highways/interstates from Tennessee to the FL panhandle.
That said, why the central Floridians are getting all up in dead armadillos is anyone’s meth–I mean guess.
As a resident of central FL (for now), my neighbors eating armadillos would explain quite a bit.
🤢
I think I read somewhere that it’s getting warmer in northern areas which supports their preferred habitats, hence the spread.
Interesting armadillo fact - their threat response is to either ball up or jump up in the air about 3-5 ft. Which is unfortunately how they respond to oncoming vehicles.
America has nine banded armadillos, the ones that curl into balls are three banded.
They are everywhere now except the extreme north. They are common here in KS. Leprosy is not.
I saw armadillos a number of times in Florida when I was a kid (30ish years ago).
Getting leprosy to own the libs!
JFC Florida
Don’t touch the Armadillos, well known carrier of leprosy.
In fact leave all the wildlife alone. Its better for them and for us.
but then, we loose out on like, a good quarter of the Florida Man stories. (granted it’s mostly just Ron in his underwear doing meth again… but details.)
I love a good Florida Man story from time to time but in this case I say stop diddling fauna. In the long game we are way better for it :)
Yeah.
Probably true.
I feel like there’s something wrong with Florida but I can’t put my finger on it.
Please don’t. It’s probably contagious.
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Way to go, Ron!
Florida making Leprosy great again!
Of course it’s in Florida
That is not how I expected that sentence to end. 💀
Fun Fact: For most conservatives, leprosy starts in the brain.
