I love armadillos. Like platypuses, armidillos are so damned adorbs.
And like platypuses - which have a venomous (but not lethal) sting that packs a pretty big punch - armadillos can be hazardous to your health.
As in they're carriers of the leprosy virus.
In commenting on the increasing incidents of leprosy in Florida - where else? - Dr. Norman Beatty, a U of Florida med school prof and infectious disease specialist, noted that when it comes to the spread of leprosy:
'Leprosy in the state of Florida is an ongoing, emerging infectious disease that we are identify more and more.'
... the culprit in Florida is the nine-banded armadillo, which is found in most parts of Florida and can harbor the bacteria that cause leprosy, as well as contaminated soil near armadillo burrows.
'We have found that people who have acquired leprosy here in Florida have had exposure to either soil that has been contaminated with the bacteria and people who have had direct contact with armadillos, either by handling them or eating them,' he said. Source: The Daily Mail)
Not that leprosy has reached epidemic levels in the Sunshine State. Although Florida is a relative hotbed when compared to other states, there are typically only 100-200 cases identified each year in the US. A disproportionate number of those Florida cases can be traced to locallly acquired, native sources, as opposed to leprosy acquired while out of the country.
The good news is that, if you get to it quickly, leprosy (or, to use its more modern name, Hansen's Disease) can be treated with antibiotics. If you don't get to it quickly, well there's nerve damage, disfiguring lesions, blindness...Not to mention the social stigma. Lepers! Unclean!
My historic knowledge of leprosy comes from the movie Ben Hur, and the story of Father Damien of Molokai (Hawaii).
In Ben-Hur, the sister and mother of Judah Ben-Hur (that's Charlton Heston to you, bub) are unjustly imprisoned (political reasons, natch) and while in prison they contract leprosy and end up living in exile in a cave in the Valley of the Lepers. Long movie short - and, at 3 hours, 32 minutes, it was a long movie - Ben-Hur (who had been slaving away on a galley ship) is reunited with mom and sis, who are cured of their leprosy by Jesus Christ (cameo role).
I retain two very clear images from the movie, which I saw in the theater over six decades ago. One is the grisly body of Ben-Hur's enemy, who was trampled in the chariot race he lost to Ben-Hur. The other is the scene where Ben-Hur finds his leperous mother and daughter in their cave.
Seeing Ben-Hur was pretty much a one-and-done. But in grammar school, we heard plenty about Damien of Molokai, a Catholic priest who ministered to lepers on the Hawaiian island of Molokai. Through his close contact with those lepers, Damien acquired and succumbed to the disease. (Leprosy is not easily transmitted between humans, but close, long-term contact can result in leprosy.)
Damien - not yet a saint back then, but just plain old Father - was frequently held up by the nuns as a role model, as he was a martyr. Oh, he was only a martyr to charity, not one of the traditionally-worshipped martyrs who died unbelievably gruesome deaths for not renouncing their faith. Having your eyes plucked out, being roasted on a spit, being shot up with arrows, having your fingers gnawed off. Oh, we would probably have easier deaths if we stood up for Catholicism. We'd just get a bullet in the head from an anti-Christ Commie. But martyrdom was something to aspire for, that's for sure.
But Damien was a good model because he was relatively modern and easier to identify with than someone who'd had her eyes gouged out in the year 300 AD. Damien died in 1889. One of my grandmothers was born in 1882. So Father Damien was pretty damned close. He could have been one of us.
And his biography, Father Damien and the Bells, which recounted his life on Molokai, was a very popular book back in my day. It was part of the Vision Book series of children's books about Catholics, primarily saints but not always. My family of great readers subscribed to Vision Books, and received one monthly. I liked the Father Damien book, but my favorites were Lydia Longley: First American Nun, and the Champions in Sport and Spirit books about American Catholic athletes. Like Herb Score, whose career as a pitcher went sideways when he was hit in the eye by a line drive off the bat of Gil McDougald, a fellow Catholic. Sigh.
Back to the lepers, back to the armadillos.
To avoid contracting leprosy, Beatty urges Floridians to avoid any contact with nine-banded armadillos, which includes touching, hunting or eating them. People with armadillo burrows in their yards should also avoid touching the surrounding soil, especially if they have open wounds in which the bacteria can enter.
'Awareness of this emerging infectious disease is important, but we also want to not raise any alarms,' Beatty said.
Not that I'm planning on contact with nine-banded armadillos, let alone supping on curried armadillo, but, Dr. Beatty, you have indeed raised an alarm.
I have old friends in Dallas, and they live on the edge of a nature preserve and have seen armadillos on their property plenty of times. I must away to warn them.
Meanwhile, if there is a worse breakout of leprosy here in The States, where's Father Damien when we need him?
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Image Source: National Wildlife Federation
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