This Isn't The Future I Was Picturing

As cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle abandon the precepts of modern hygiene all in the name of some vague fairness/freedom doctrine, they are also seeing the return of diseases that used to plague medieval Europe: typhus, typhoid, and hepatitis. It is expected that the bubonic plague will also make a reappearance at some point. (I can picture a cart rolling down the street with its attendant calling out “Bring out your dead! Bring out your dead!”)

Another ancient disease that may soon join the others and make a reappearance in Los Angeles?

Leprosy.

I have been covering the typhus and typhoid outbreaks that have hit Southern California as a result of the rat-infestation around homeless encampments.

Now an outbreak of a notorious disease, leprosy, is being reported. A recent study published as a Reuters Health report indicates the bacterial infection is emerging in the Los Angeles area.

Leprosy, more formally known as Hansen’s Disease, is caused by the Mycobacterium leprae bacteria. These pathogens grow slowly, and it can take up to 20 years before the first signs of the infection occur. Perhaps the most infamous aspect of the disease is the loss of fingers, toes, and other extremities if the infection is left untreated.

One has to wonder if another old thing will make a reappearance, that being a crier preceding a leper as they walk down the street, calling out “Unclean! Unclean!”, giving the populace time to avoid them as they make their ways to the leper colonies on the outskirts of the city. After all The Powers That Be in Los Angeles, as well as San Francisco and Seattle have been working so hard to bring back other historical events and activities.