The Florida Department of Health has reported 17 cases of Hansen's disease, commonly known as leprosy, in the state's north and central regions as of July 18 this year.
Leprosy is a chronic bacterial infection that primarily affects the skin, peripheral nerves and upper respiratory tract. Left untreated, it can cause permanent nerve damage and other complications. The disease infects up to 225 people in the United States and 250,000 worldwide each year.
Florida has become a hotspot for the disease in recent years, with 14 counties home to more than nine million people recently reporting cases. While the source of infection has not been definitively identified, scientists believe the nine-banded armadillo, which carries the bacterium that causes the disease, is playing a role in its spread.
Norman Beatty, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Florida College of Medicine, said direct contact with an armadillo, whether alive or dead, can be a source of infection. "In some communities, eating armadillo is also considered a Southern delicacy," he told the Daily Mail.
Beatty, who treats leprosy patients in Florida, said his clinic has identified at least two patients who had eaten armadillo and may have been exposed while preparing or handling the animal. "We would want to avoid touching or eating the animal," he said.
He added that his clinic has identified additional cases that have not yet been reported to the state health department or included in its official tally. "These numbers are going to continue to grow for the rest of this year," Beatty said. "It's probable that we will surpass last year's number of cases in Florida."
The state recorded 36 confirmed cases in 2025, nearly double the 20 reported in 2024. That marks a dramatic departure from previous decades: Florida averaged six cases annually between 1992 and 2014 before recording 29 infections in 2015. Since then, the state has averaged more than 21 cases a year, with approximately 214 reported over the past decade.
Where cases have been reported
This year's cases were spread across Charlotte, Miami-Dade and Volusia counties, each reporting two infections.
Brevard, Duval, Highlands, Lake, Lee, Manatee, Okeechobee, Orange, Seminole, St Johns and Sumter counties each recorded one case.
Why leprosy cases are climbing
Beatty said the rise was "probably multifactorial," driven partly by doctors getting better at recognizing the disease and by Florida's growing and aging population. His clinic is seeing leprosy most commonly among patients in their 60s and 70s, an age pattern that differs from other parts of the world, where younger people and even children are more frequently diagnosed.
Scientists have warned Hansen's disease may now be endemic in parts of Florida, meaning the bacterium is circulating locally rather than appearing only in people infected overseas. Several Florida patients had no history of travel to countries where leprosy is widespread, no known prolonged contact with an infected person, and no direct exposure to armadillos, the animal most commonly linked to transmission in the southern US.
Some locals who contracted leprosy believe the infection came through soil contaminated with the bacteria. "We also have another group of people who have never touched an armadillo, or even seen an armadillo, but they've interacted in the soil," Beatty said. Some had worked in industries involving frequent soil exposure, while for others their only known outdoor exposure was golfing.
Beatty urged people to wear gloves when handling soil in areas where armadillos live, particularly around burrows and gardens where the animals have been digging.
How rare and contagious is it
Despite the increase, health officials stress that leprosy remains rare, difficult to catch and curable with antibiotics. Approximately 95 percent of people are naturally resistant to the bacteria that cause it. Ohio has also reported two cases so far in 2026.
Beatty said research involving his clinic's patients found little evidence that Floridians were passing the disease directly to one another. "Our household contact data does not show much, if any, transmission between humans," he said. "Humans are infectious to others in some situations, but it's probably less common than anyone ever thought." Instead, his team's research points toward environmental and animal exposure as the more likely sources of infection in Florida.
Symptoms and how the disease progresses
Because the bacteria multiply extremely slowly, symptoms can take years, sometimes as long as two decades, to emerge after infection. Early warning signs include discolored, pale or reddish patches of skin that may have little or no sensation. Patients may also develop nodules, thick or dry skin, painless ulcers on the soles of their feet, and swelling around the face or earlobes.
Other symptoms include loss of eyebrows or eyelashes, numbness, weakened or paralyzed muscles, and enlarged nerves around the elbows, knees or neck. The disease can also attack the eyes and nasal passages, causing vision problems, congestion or recurring nosebleeds.
Without treatment, the infection can inflict permanent nerve damage, leaving patients unable to feel pain in affected areas, which can allow burns, cuts and other injuries to go unnoticed and become severely infected. Contrary to a long-standing myth, leprosy does not make fingers and toes simply fall off. Instead, repeated injuries, chronic ulcers and secondary infections can destroy tissue and cause digits to shorten or be lost, and advanced cases can result in paralysis, blindness and facial disfigurement.
Treatment and the disease's long history
Beatty said early diagnosis is crucial because antibiotics can cure the infection but cannot always reverse damage that has already occurred. "The longer you're living with leprosy untreated, yes, there are chronic sequelae," he said. "You can have a chronic neuropathy, you can also have skin lesions that remain for life."
Treatment varies according to the form of leprosy, but patients typically receive a combination of antibiotics over an extended period. "We typically use at least three different types of antibiotics, and they have different mechanisms of action," Beatty said. "This is a slow-growing bacterium, and we have to treat for a little bit longer periods than we would with other infectious diseases, so a person will be on antibiotics for one to two years."
Leprosy is one of the oldest diseases known to humanity, with the earliest skeletal evidence discovered in India dating back roughly 4,000 years. The disease is believed to have spread across continents through ancient migration, conquering armies and international trade routes, though its precise origin remains disputed, with studies pointing to possible beginnings in Africa or Asia. Ancient religious texts describe people with certain skin diseases being isolated and forced to announce themselves as "unclean," although historians caution that not every biblical reference to leprosy necessarily described the illness now known as Hansen's disease.
Beatty said his team is working to dismantle the ancient stigma surrounding the disease and ensure patients understand that effective treatment is available. "This is a disease that is curable, and early recognition can prevent any of the chronic sequelae that we do see in later stages," he said. "We have treatments that can cure you of leprosy."
