What Is Leprosy? Texas Reports New Cases Of Biblical Disease In 2016

Leprosy often evokes images of biblical times: colonies of infected patients quarantined and covered in sores. Seen as something exclusive to the past, the disease has largely faded into history, which is likely why doctors were confounded when a Texas man was recently diagnosed with it.

Mel Riser, of Austin, visited 15 doctors and neurologists before they were able to diagnose the reason for his numbness, growing blindness and the red spots on his body.