Gerhard Henrik Armauer Hansen (1841-1912)-The 100th anniversary of the death of the discoverer of Mycobacterium leprae

Abstract

The year 2012 marked the 100th anniversary of the death of Gerhard Henrik Armauer Hansen (1841-1912), a Norwegian physician known for his identification of Mycobacterium leprae as the causative agent of leprosy. In the second half of the 19th century, the medical community believed leprosy had a noninfectious etiology, and it was not until Hansen uncovered the relationship between M leprae and the clinical manifestations of this disease did that belief begin to change. Strengthening of the late 19th and early 20th century beliefs of the infectious etiology of leprosy made it possible to develop an effective treatment for this still terrible disease. © 2013.