Leprosy is a disease that has been feared since the time of Jesus and the disciples. Lepers are those who were infected with leprosy and would often be segregated or even banished from their homes. They were forced to wear heavy clothes and bandages not only to cover their sensitive skin but also to hide their "scars" from others. It was a disease that spread quickly if left unchecked and had no remedy. To be a leper was to lose your rights as a normal human being back in those days. 

However, the same cannot be said today.  Here are some things you need to know about leprosy in the modern age, and why divine intervention is no longer the only cure.

Leprosy is totally curable.

Leprosy is no longer the killer disease that it was in its heyday. In fact, it's no longer called leprosy in the medical world, but Hansen's disease. It was named after scientist Gerhard Henrik Armauer Hansen who discovered the bacteria responsible for the disease back in 1873.

With the development of the MDT (multidrug therapy) method in the 1960s, the once fearsome disease has become something that a few antibiotics can fix over a few weeks up to two years. A few days of the antibiotics will remove the infectious quality of the disease immediately. In the year 2000, the world was declared safe from the threat of leprosy as over 16 million people diagnosed with leprosy were immediately treated with great success. 

Leprosy is on the path of being free from the globe.

In 2016, WHO announced its strategy to rid the world of leprosy once and for all by the year 2020. They will be focusing primarily on the cases of younger children, nipping the disease in the bud, so to speak. They have a three-step program that is composed of:

• Increasing allocation of resources towards leprosy in the government fund
• Researching the spread of leprosy and stopping it as soon as possible
• Promoting the inclusion of those suffering from leprosy instead of ostracizing them

Leprosy does not cause limbs to fall off.

Leprosy, by itself, does not cause extremities to fall off. At its worst, it only causes a severe numbness that makes it feel like the limb has been cut off. What is more likely is that in ancient times, the banishment of these ancient lepers in dirty hovels only worsened their leprosy, giving them other diseases that actually severe limb time to fester.

95% of adults in the world are immune to leprosy.

Thanks to the efforts of the WHO, there has been a massive reduction in the number of leprosy cases in adults. In fact, past a certain age, you are no longer in any life-threatening danger from the disease as long as you are in a city. Most hospitals have the antibiotics necessary on hand to treat lepers, and most modern-day "lepers" can live normal lives. It's no different from those who take medicine for other diseases.

While leprosy may have once been a feared disease, modern science has all but removed its threat from the world.