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St. Elizabeth's Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Am Fam Physician. 1995 Jul;52(1):172-8.
Leprosy is a chronic disease of the skin and peripheral nerves that afflicts more than 5 million persons worldwide and more than 7,000 persons in the United States. Although leprosy is indigenous to the southern United States, most new cases in this country occur among immigrants from foreign areas where the disease is endemic. Leprosy presents as a skin rash and/or peripheral neuropathy. The diagnosis can be confirmed when acid-fast bacilli are found in skin biopsies or smears. The multiple-drug treatment regimens recommended by the World Health Organization have considerably reduced the length of treatment to six months to two years. The optimum duration of treatment has yet to be determined. In most countries, including the United States, leprosy remains one of the most stigmatizing diseases.
麻风病是一种影响皮肤和周围神经的慢性疾病，全球有超过500万人患病，美国有7000多人患病。虽然麻风病在美国南部是本土疾病，但该国大多数新病例发生在来自该病流行的外国地区的移民中。麻风病表现为皮疹和/或周围神经病变。当在皮肤活检或涂片检查中发现抗酸杆菌时即可确诊。世界卫生组织推荐的多药治疗方案已将治疗时间大幅缩短至6个月至2年。最佳治疗时长尚未确定。在包括美国在内的大多数国家，麻风病仍然是最具污名化的疾病之一。
