ArticleThe New England journal of medicine2011
Probable zoonotic leprosy in the southern United States.
Article in The New England journal of medicine, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 136 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
136 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 362 citations in OpenAlex.
- Silence on the plate: revisiting the enigma ofFrontiers in microbiology · 2025Pooled it
- Reservoirs and transmission routes of leprosy; A systematic review.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2020Pooled it
- Prevalence of Mycobacterium leprae in armadillos in Brazil: A systematic review and meta-analysis.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2020Pooled it
- Ancient Mycobacterium leprae genomes reveal a potential origin and dispersal of the ancestral Branch 0.Communications biology · 2026Article
- Lepromatous leprosy presenting with chronic painless ulcers and inflammatory arthropathy: a case report from a non-endemic setting.BMC infectious diseases · 2026Article
- M. leprae, M. lepromatosis, and Leprosy: Surprises and Surmises.The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene · 2026Article
- Identification of Mycobacterium leprae and Mycobacterium lepromatosis Cases with Broad-Range Molecular Assays at a Single Large Reference Laboratory.The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene · 2026Article
- Probable Autochthonous Transmission of Mycobacterium lepromatosis in the Pacific Northwestern United States.The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene · 2026Article
- Paucibacillary leprosy presenting as fibular neuropathy: A case of autochthonous zoonotic exposure in endemic Florida.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2026Article
- Article
- British Red Squirrels (Interdisciplinary perspectives on infectious diseases · 2026Article
- Hansen's disease patient in Ohio successfully treated with a monthly rifampin, minocycline, and moxifloxacin regimen: a case report.ASM case reports · 2025Article
- Hansen's Disease in Ecuador: Current Status, Knowledge Gaps, and Research Priorities: A Literature Review.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Classic and new candidate markers for drug resistance in a large cohort of leprosy patients from the Amazon state, Brazil.Antimicrobial agents and chemotherapy · 2025Article
- Environmental Exposures Relative to Locally Acquired Hansen Disease, United States.Emerging infectious diseases · 2025Article
- Wildlife hunting and the increased risk of leprosy transmission in the tropical Americas: a pathogeographical study.Infectious diseases of poverty · 2025Article
- Case Report of Leprosy in Central Florida, USA, 2022.Emerging infectious diseases · 2025Article
- Art in Science: Unclean, Unclean.Clinical orthopaedics and related research · 2025Article
- An alternative multidrug regimen for multibacillary Hansen's disease: a case report.Journal of medical case reports · 2024Article
- Leprosy.Nature reviews. Disease primers · 2024Review
76 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
11 authors at 6 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundIn the southern region of the United States, such as in Louisiana and Texas, there are autochthonous cases of leprosy among native-born Americans with no history of foreign exposure. In the same region, as well as in Mexico, wild armadillos are infected with Mycobacterium leprae.
methodsWhole-genome resequencing of M. leprae from one wild armadillo and three U.S. patients with leprosy revealed that the infective strains were essentially identical. Comparative genomic analysis of these strains and M. leprae strains from Asia and Brazil identified 51 single-nucleotide polymorphisms and an 11-bp insertion-deletion. We genotyped these polymorphic sites, in combination with 10 variable-number tandem repeats, in M. leprae strains obtained from 33 wild armadillos from five southern states, 50 U.S. outpatients seen at a clinic in Louisiana, and 64 Venezuelan patients, as well as in four foreign reference strains.
resultsThe M. leprae genotype of patients with foreign exposure generally reflected their country of origin or travel history. However, a unique M. leprae genotype (3I-2-v1) was found in 28 of the 33 wild armadillos and 25 of the 39 U.S. patients who resided in areas where exposure to armadillo-borne M. leprae was possible. This genotype has not been reported elsewhere in the world.
conclusionsWild armadillos and many patients with leprosy in the southern United States are infected with the same strain of M. leprae. Armadillos are a large natural reservoir for M. leprae, and leprosy may be a zoonosis in the region. (Funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and others.).
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.