>> [possum is] not near as good as Hoover Hog (armadillo) which comes
>> in its own baking dish, but carries the Hansen's virus, enough to
>> make you throw in your hand while playing bridge - no, not the cards,
>> the hand, Hansen's being Leprosy (curable by today's antibiotics from
>> the Streptomycin line, IIRC).
> If Hansen's is a virus, how can it be effectively treated with
> antibiotics?

It isn't a virus, it's a bacterium closely related to the one that
causes TB.

It's very difficult to catch; usually takes years of contact with
an infected person before you get it. (Unlike TB from infected milk,
which is a serious hazard).

Both TB and leprosy need treatment by multiple antibiotics for some
time - the TB protocol was developed in Edinburgh in the 1950s,
but it took twenty years for an analogous regimen to be adopted for
leprosy.

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"bogus address" > wrote in message
...
>
> >> [possum is] not near as good as Hoover Hog (armadillo) which comes
> >> in its own baking dish, but carries the Hansen's virus, enough to
> >> make you throw in your hand while playing bridge - no, not the cards,
> >> the hand, Hansen's being Leprosy (curable by today's antibiotics from
> >> the Streptomycin line, IIRC).
> > If Hansen's is a virus, how can it be effectively treated with
> > antibiotics?
>
> It isn't a virus, it's a bacterium closely related to the one that
> causes TB.

I know. I was just calling him on his error.

> It's very difficult to catch; usually takes years of contact with
> an infected person before you get it. (Unlike TB from infected milk,
> which is a serious hazard).
>
> Both TB and leprosy need treatment by multiple antibiotics for some
> time - the TB protocol was developed in Edinburgh in the 1950s,
> but it took twenty years for an analogous regimen to be adopted for
> leprosy.


Q. What did the leper say to the prostitute?


A. "Keep the tip."



Sorry, I couldn't resist . . .

>> Both TB and leprosy need treatment by multiple antibiotics for some
>> time - the TB protocol was developed in Edinburgh in the 1950s,
>> but it took twenty years for an analogous regimen to be adopted for
>> leprosy.
> Q. What did the leper say to the prostitute?
> A. "Keep the tip."

Q: What happened to the prostitute afterwards?
A: Her business fell off.

I wonder if jokes like that ever really go away with changing
fashions, or whether one generation of 15-year-olds tells them
to the next? I think I must have heard that one in 1964. There
was an epidemic of leper jokes at the time.

========> Email to "j-c" at this site; email to "bogus" will bounce <========
Jack Campin: 11 Third Street, Newtongrange, Midlothian EH22 4PU; 0131 6604760
<http://www.purr.demon.co.uk/purrhome.html> food intolerance data & recipes,
Mac logic fonts, Scots traditional music files and CD-ROMs of Scottish music.