Why do some Patients with Leprosy Develop Deformities?
Less than one-third of all patients develop deformity. The main cause of deformity in leprosy patients is nerve damage. This occurs because the leprosy germs have a peculiar liking for nerve tissue, and multiply freely between nerve fibres. When the germs die or are killed by the medication, the resulting inflammation compresses and destroys these delicate fibres with more or less complete loss of function. So feeling is lost and muscles paralysed, thus paving the way for ulceration, damage through injury and eventually deformity.
