The first recorded case of leprosy in Ireland was notified to health authorities earlier this year.
The disease was diagnosed in a Brazilian man in his 30s who attended a GP clinic in Co Meath. The man, who has been working in Ireland for a number of years, was suffering a recurrence of the disease contracted in his home country a decade earlier.
The Health Service Executive confirmed yesterday that the case was notified to its Health Protection Surveillance Centre last January. Leprosy was not designated a reportable infectious disease until last year.
Connor Gallagher, the GP registrar who examined the man, referred the case to the infectious diseases centre at St James's Hospital in Dublin, which made the diagnosis of tuberculoid leprosy and commenced treatment.
Writing in the Forum, the journal of the Irish College of General Practitioners, Dr Gallagher and infectious disease specialist Katie McFaul said the case was one they might have expected to encounter "more in the Middle Ages than on a busy morning clinic in Co Meath".
Topical illness
While the consultation might be extraordinary in Irish terms, it is an interesting example of the sort of tropical illnesses that can occur in modern, multicultural Ireland, they write.
“As we open ourselves to global travellers we can expect to see more global health complaints.”
The HSE said the case was not a cause for alarm as leprosy, despite its reputation, is not highly contagious. The strain identified in the current case multiplies very slowly and the incubation period of the disease is about five years.
Curable
Symptoms can take as long as 20 years to appear. Leprosy is curable and treatment provided in the early stages averts disability.
The disease is transmitted by droplets from the nose and mouth, during close and frequent contacts with untreated cases.
The HSE said there were no cases officially reported here between 1981 and 2012, when leprosy was not on the list of notifiable diseases. It is therefore possible that cases occurred but were not reported during this period.
A case of leprosy was reported in Lurgan, Northern Ireland, in 2007. The patient was from East Timor and contracted the disease while living in his home country. The last such case was reported in the UK in 1954 and prior to that, in 1925.
Leprosy was common in Dublin in medieval times, when a leper hospital was built near St Stephen’s Green in the 14th century. It was later moved out to the Dublin mountains, giving the name Leopardstown to the area in which it was situated.
