Leprosy's drug resistance and origin revealed by genome analysis

Leprosy is an infectious disease with gruesome symptoms. It damages the skin, peripheral nerves, the upper respiratory tract, and the eyes. Despite being curable with multidrug therapy, leprosy still persists in many developing countries, with more than 200,000 new cases every year and increasing drug-resistant strains of the leprosy bacterium, Mycobacterium leprae, emerging.