The History of Leprosy
The earliest known account of Leprosy was believed to be in an Egyptian Papyrus document which was written around 1550 B.C. They believe that is the first known siting of Leprosy because the describing in the document resembles highly to the disease we now know today as Leprosy. Leprosy back then had always been misunderstood and feared. People would use to say Leprosy was a hereditary disease, a curse, and some would even say it was a punishment from god until they found the biological cause for it (Stanford). In 1873, Doctor Gerhard Henrik Armauer Hansen was the first person to ever identify the germ that causes leprosy under a microscope (Stanford). Doctor Hansen discovered Mycobacterium Leprae which means that Leprosy is not a hereditary disease, a curse, or an act of god but instead it is from a germ (Stanford).