The "huge" surge is being sensationalized, as mentioned, and beyond that, anyone still worried should simply read more about Hansen's Disease before making a decision to visit Florida.
Hansen's Disease is very treatable, involving multiple antibiotic drug therapy over the course of about two years. Not a simple treatment, but not lifelong by any means. Patients are not isolated from society the way they once were. And it really is very hard to catch, because the vast majority of the population (something around 95%) have natural immunity to the bacteria that causes it.
I keep saying Hansen's Disease because the word "leprosy" is so stigmatized. A Hansen's patient, Stanley Levyson, writing under the name Stanley Stein, founded The Star magazine about 80 years ago and undertook a lifetime effort to both dispense accurate information about the disease and eradicate the use of the word leprosy. The magazine is still in publication today.
I have been lucky enough to spend time at the former National Leprosarium in Carville, Louisiana. Back in the day, when the disease and the people who caught it were so stigmatized, people who contracted it were sent there forcibly by law. Stanley Levyson was a resident of Carville. As were many people (including children) who were ripped from their homes and carted away to live out their lives there. Many of the residents used false names to protect their loved ones out in the real world due to the stigmatization. Throughout the decades, the patients at Carville formed an isolated but very vibrant society. They had a golf course, formed clubs (a boy scout troop even), had dances, married, gardened, and just lived. Once treatments were found, the residents were allowed to leave, but most stayed, because it was their home at that point (and for the people sent as kids, the only home they knew). It's both tragic and inspiring. Today, there's a museum (the
National Hansen's Disease Museum) at Carville and self-guided tour of the grounds. It's a beautiful location, and if anyone is ever in the area, it's worth a visit.
I don't want or meant to lecture. It's just such a misunderstood disease and the history of the people who were victim to it before its origins were understood is one not many know.
And it's so hard to catch and still so rare, the odds of catching it at WDW are very small.
I mean, not even close!
