VANCOUVER - Is a plague of locusts up next?
That seems like a valid question to ask after public health officials in British Columbia confirmed Friday that a person working on one of the cruise ships housing Olympic personnel was diagnosed with leprosy.
The unnamed man, who was only in Canada because the cruise ship he worked on had been hired to provide housing for Olympic security staff, has already been sent back to his country of origin to receive treatment, the officials said.
"This just happens to be a coincidence, that the individual happens to be working or was working on one of the ships that's housing the personnel who are doing security for the Olympics," Dr. Perry Kendall, B.C.'s chief medical officer of health, said Friday.
Kendall said the man worked as a below-decks crew member and didn't have contact with the Olympic staff or the public. He suggested the man posed a bigger risk to the already embattled reputation of the Vancouver Games than he did to anyone in Vancouver.
"The truth of the matter is that there's a crew member who has no contact with the public or with any of the staff who are resident aboard the boats for the Olympics who has a medical condition which hasn't put anybody in ... the public or in the security forces at risk.
"I think the major concern is that the British media will run off with this," said Kendall, who originally hails from England.
"So first we have a luge guy have a tragedy, then we have bad weather -- or good weather as the case may be -- then we have crowds break through a barrier and now (leprosy). Good heavens."
Kendall wouldn't say where the man was from.
Leprosy, which is also known as Hansen's disease, remains endemic in a number of countries in Africa, the subcontinent and east Asia. It is also endemic in some southern U.S. states, he said.
About 10 or 15 cases of leprosy are diagnosed in Canada every year, generally in people from countries where the disease still spreads, said Dr. Bonnie Henry, a physician epidemiologist with the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control.
Despite leprosy's Biblical bad rap -- reinforced by James Michener's bestseller, Hawaii -- the disease is not highly contagious and responds well to treatment with antibiotics. People with leprosy are considered to be no longer infectious within 24 hours of starting treatment, Henry said.
"It's not a disease that's easily transmitted to others," she suggested, adding authorities would really only be concerned about people who had close and prolonged contact with a person with leprosy.
People who had been in close contact with the man have been checked by occupational health officials, said Kendall, who noted cases generally come to light when an infected person seeks medical attention for lesions.
Leprosy has an extraordinarily long incubation period. Cases can show up any time within one to 20 years after exposure, though Kendall said the majority of people who develop leprosy will have symptoms within about five years of exposure.
People who are thought to be at risk of catching leprosy are sometimes put on an antibiotic, rifampicin. Kendall said there isn't a lot of scientific evidence to show that actually is needed, but "people tend to do it because it doesn't hurt."
Leprosy is caused by a slow-growing bacteria called Mycobacterium leprae and is transmitted via droplets from the nose and mouth of untreated patients with severe disease. It can cause nerve damage if left untreated. Long-term progression of the disease can lead to muscle weakness, atrophy and permanent disabilities.
The World Health Organization estimates about 250,000 new cases of leprosy were diagnosed in 2008, the most recent year for which an estimate is available.
