A man in his 20s went to a dermatologist with a red rash all over his body. It was leprosy.

• A man had circular red patches all over his body and his hand was in the shape of a claw. was diagnosed with leprosy.
• He was eventually diagnosed with leprosy, a rare disease that is still stigmatized.

A young man in his 20s with mysterious and uncomfortable ring-shaped patches went to a dermatologist in Texas. At first, a battery of tests came back negative, according to a recent clinical challenge in JAMA.

The patches, which continued to bother the man, were raised and didn't feel touch or temperature. He also reported a prickling sensation within the spots.

And the man didn't just have a rash: His fingers were also bent into a claw-like shape, and he had difficulty lifting his foot.

After sending off a sample of one of the reddened patches for testing, the results finally came back: The man had leprosy.

Although rare in the US, leprosy is still stigmatized in many areas of the world — which can cause people to delay treatment, even though the disease is curable.

Leprosy is a bacterial infection that can cause nerve damage if left untreated

Leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease, is caused by the slow-growing bacteria Mycobacterium lepromatosis. Only about 150 people in the United States contract the infection each year, and globally about 250,000 people contract the case.

Leprosy is thought to spread via droplets from the nose and mouth and through prolonged close contact with someone who has the infection, according to the World Health Organization.

It often takes years for symptoms to develop, but if left untreated it can lead to nerve damage, which this patient experienced in his hands and feet. It can also affect the nerves in eyes, which can eventually lead to blindness, and the mucous membranes of the upper respiratory tract, which can cause a stuffy nose and nosebleeds.

Luckily, one day leprosy may be a disease of the past. The World Health Organization is currently working to completely eliminate leprosy. In 2019, 45 countries reported zero new cases, and 99 reported fewer than 1000 new cases. One of the countries where leprosy is still endemic is Samoa, where this patient was from.

Leprosy used to be a feared illness, but today it is curable

Leprosy is one of the oldest known infectious diseases in human history, and was once thought of as highly contagious and incurable. But today it is curable and, if caught early, has no long term consequences.

The sooner leprosy is caught, the more likely that a patient will recover without any lasting disabilities. Once a patient starts treatment, they are no longer contagious.

The patient in this case was prescribed 12 months of antibiotics, as well as medication to manage his nerve pain. Within two months of being prescribed medication, his rash and nerve pain had substantially improved, the authors of the clinical challenge reported. At eleven months, the patient underwent a surgery to correct some of the nerve damage in his hand. When doctors last saw him, he had completed 9 of the 12 months of antibiotics, had successfully completed hand surgery, and was well on his way to recovery.