Leprosy is one of the three oldest chronic infectious diseases recorded in human history. Leprosy, syphilis and tuberculosis have been tied to the entire human race since the beginning of the human species' ability to record history.

But unlike tuberculosis and syphilis, the infectiousness of leprosy is actually very weak. Unless you have long-term close contact with untreated leprosy patients or have been exposed to armadillos infected with Mycobacterium leprosy, normal people generally will not be infected with this chronic infectious disease.

The main thing about leprosy is its disability - because leprosy continues to cause skin lesions and peripheral nerve damage, and peripheral nerve damage will slow down and even disappear. This leads to many patients with advanced leprosy who have no limbs at all, which will cause continuous damage to the limbs during daily activities, and eventually lead to serious injuries and disability. Even if you pay attention to it very much and there is no limb damage, leprosy itself will cause serious consequences such as disfigurement.

"Leprosy?" Dr. Jiang thought for a while, then nodded slowly, "It's true... possible."

Mycobacterium leprosy infection can cause a positive reaction to tuberculosis antibodies, and vaccination with BCG can provide ordinary people with a certain degree of leprosy immunity. Their clinical relationship is even closer than that of biological classification. Among patients with leprosy, there are a type of patients with strong immune ability that will show "tuberculosis-like", and there are also tuberculosis patients with skin lesions as the primary symptom.

Both leprosy and tuberculosis require long-term treatment. Generally speaking, patients with leprosy (PB) need to receive at least six months of combined treatment. If it is bacterial leprosy (MB), it requires one year of continuous combined antibiotic treatment. Tuberculosis also takes 6 to 12 months to cure.

Moreover, the treatment plans of both parties are very overlapping. The main recommended treatment plan for leprosy is to use three antibiotics with different mechanisms of action: dapsone (dds), rifampin (rfp) and clofazimin (b633) for combined treatment.

Dapsone can treat tuberculosis with rifampin, which is the first-line drug for treating tuberculosis, and clofazimin is the main drug for treating drug-resistant tuberculosis.

From a certain perspective, Dr. Jiang was right from the beginning - he should treat Kobayashi according to the method of treating tuberculosis.

"I'll take skin samples now." Dr. Jiang has never seen leprosy patients, but the incidence of leprosy in China is getting lower and lower. Now we can rarely see early patients who have just been infected. This also made Dr. Jiang relax his vigilance about this disease. If it weren't for Sun Lien's reminder, he would probably never think about it.

Sun Lien nodded, and he pushed his diagnosis aside again, with no problem with the process and logic. The trouble now lies in finding the cause of Kobayashi's infection, as well as testing and intervention on Lin Lan - she may not be infected with leprosy, but living with Kobayashi's death, she faces more than five times the risk of infection that ordinary people face.

Thinking of this, Sun Lien walked helplessly into the ward. The miserable couple had just walked around the line of life and death a year ago, and now they are facing this... threat again. Even Sun Lien felt sad for them. It seemed as if God was staring at the couple, testing their relationship with the worst jokes again and again.

However, Sun Lien is quite confident about the relationship between the couple. Kobayashi Hun's concern for Lin Lan is definitely out of sincerity - at least Sun Lien doesn't think that others will worry about excessive changes in blood pressure when their wife is undergoing surgery, which will lead to ear canal bleeding. In order to save her wife's life first, Kobayashi Hun has been suffering from the double torture of a slight concussion and a temporal bone fracture until she pays her treatment fee.

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"Okay, I understand." Lin Lan nodded gently after hearing Sun Lien's diagnosis. She walked over and continued to caress her husband's hair. After touching it twice, she asked, "If treatment starts, when will he not be so uncomfortable?"

"It's not sure that it's leprosy yet." Sun Lien replied carefully, and kept observing Lin Lan's condition using the status bar. "This requires waiting for the biopsy results to be released before it can be confirmed."

"If it is confirmed that it is leprosy, then we can be sure that his current symptoms are caused by the leprosy reaction." Sun Lien replied, "The leprosy reaction is the result of his own immune system and pathogen fights, and can be controlled through immunosuppressants..."

"In other words, as long as he is confirmed to be a leper, there is a way to make him... make him feel better?" Lin Lan lowered her head and thought for a while, then gently touched Kobayashi's hair, "Although it's not good to say that... it would be fine if you really have leper." She smiled slightly, but she couldn't see any nervousness or fear, "In this way, the doctor will have a way to make you feel better."

"Although leprosy is not very contagious, you have to be as careful as possible to reduce contact with him." Sun Lien whispered, "We will also collect blood and check it later. If you are not infected by him, you can prevent infection by taking oral rifopentin."

"No hurry to do this." Lin Lan said seriously, "He is so uncomfortable now... Let's figure out Xiaolin's problem first."

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"It can be confirmed." Dr. Jiang held the coffee and shook Sun Lien with a biopsy report in his hand. "Skin tissue was taken from his right thigh for testing. The sections showed that there were foamy cells in the local nerves and lymphocytes involved."

Sun Lien stretched, "Where is the number of bacteria?" This is a key question. If the number of bacteria is small, then Kobayashi Hsumi can receive half a year of treatment.

"It's currently 6." Dr. Jiang reported a bad result. "Look at the examination report. If there is no other opinion, I will prepare to give him a u-mdt treatment plan."

"There is no problem in the examination, it can be confirmed." Sun Lien quickly scanned the examination report. The report mentioned that Mycobacterium leprosy was clearly detected under the microscope. "But... give him thalidomide first to control the leprosy reaction?"

Kobayashi's high fever does not subside is an obvious leprosy reaction. This also made Sun Lien breathe a sigh of relief - Kobayashi does not have any immune system problems. If he had an autoimmune system disease, he would not have had such a serious leprosy reaction.

"No problem." Dr. Jiang was following Sun Lien now. "Then I'll give the doctor's advice first-that crew members must also receive preventive treatment."

Sun Lien nodded, and the other crew members had close contact with Kobayashi Hung. They were also at risk of being infected. After the treatment of Kobayashi Hung was started, he planned to ask Lin Lan to go on the ship to notify the crew, and perform a test for all crew members, and then distribute enough drugs for prevention.

"What are you hiding here?" Liu Tangchun suddenly appeared in the laboratory, holding his own maritime satellite phone. "The old Xiaolin from Takeda Pharmaceutical calls you everywhere, and he calls me. Please call him back." Liu Tangchun glared at Sun Lien with some dissatisfaction, "What's the situation with his son? Have you figured it out?"

Sun Lien nodded, took out his maritime satellite phone and prepared to dial, and said while dialing, "It's confirmed that it's leprosy."
Chapter completed!