India is regarded as the point of origin of leprosy with skeletal evidence of the disease dating to 200 B.C. the government enacted the Leprosy Act of 1898 in colonial India which was institutionalized leprosy victims and on the basis of gender separated them in order to prevent reproduction.
India has recorded highest number of leprosy cases in the world after Brazil and Indonesia. While globally in the year of 2008, 2.5 new cases of leprosy were reported. India has 1.37 lakh of those followed by 38,914 cases in Brazil and 17,441 in Indonesia. 35% of new leprosy cases in India are of women.
Leprosy was rampant in India once upon a time but gradually the cases are decreasing over the time. The condition is caused due to Mycobacterium leprae, a bacterium which affects the skin, eyes, muscles, bones testes etc. This is more prevalent because people are ignorant of the symptoms of the disease and more often they fail to give medical attention to the patient before it gets worse.
