It started with strange patches on the skin and small nodules on the legs that baffled even the family doctor. Prescription creams seemed to help at first, but the lesions kept coming back.
"I had an itchy feeling in the evening on my whole body, not really itchy, it's hard to explain," recalls Raghu, who asked that his real name not be used.
He was referred to a dermatologist, who tried other skin treatments, but to little effect. And the condition was getting worse — Raghu developed a small bluish nodule on one leg. It was totally numb: he could have stuck a pin in it, he says, and there would have been "no feeling at all."
A skin biopsy finally gave him an answer — but it was one that shook him to his very core, says Raghu, who has lived in Canada for roughly three decades since immigrating to the Toronto area from India.
Raghu had leprosy.
Leprosy? In Canada?
It may come as a surprise, but several age-old diseases that many believe have been eradicated or affect people only in far-away, impoverished countries still occur in Canada, where good nutrition and state-of-the-art health care is considered a birthright.
"I had an itchy feeling in the evening on my whole body, not really itchy, it's hard to explain," recalls Raghu, who asked that his real name not be used.
He was referred to a dermatologist, who tried other skin treatments, but to little effect. And the condition was getting worse — Raghu developed a small bluish nodule on one leg. It was totally numb: he could have stuck a pin in it, he says, and there would have been "no feeling at all."
A skin biopsy finally gave him an answer — but it was one that shook him to his very core, says Raghu, who has lived in Canada for roughly three decades since immigrating to the Toronto area from India.
Raghu had leprosy.
Leprosy? In Canada?
It may come as a surprise, but several age-old diseases that many believe have been eradicated or affect people only in far-away, impoverished countries still occur in Canada, where good nutrition and state-of-the-art health care is considered a birthright.