Недавно было выдвинуто предположение, что восприимчивость к заражению лепрой носит генетически обусловленный характер. Ведь известно, что чаще всего болеют родственники уже больных людей. Индийские ученые из института Мадурай Кумарадж, совместно с английскими коллегами из Оксфорда, выяснили, что дефект в определенном участке ДНК в буквальном смысле приводит человека в лепрозорий. То есть можно и не контактировать с больным проказой, вполне достаточно генетической предрасположенности - и вот, пожалуйста, путешествуя по одной из стран с жарким климатом вполне возможно заразиться (микобактерии лепры довольно устойчивы во внешней среде). В настоящий момент ученые пытаются найти ген (или гены), ответственные за восприимчивость к проказе и разобраться в механизмах его действия.
http://www.rusbiotech.ru/2003/old/lepra.html
Интересно, как рассматривается причина проказы в Тибетской Медицине:
http://www.thdl.org/collections/medicin ... ssary.html
Mdze nad, Kletter, Plants: "The disease mdze nad is considered to be leprosy. According to the Tibetan view of life and death,
the cause for the disease lies in one's actions in a former life. Another cause of the disease is the intermingling of chu ser nag po with blood and mkhris pa*. A person already suffering from a chu ser nag po** disease might therefore easily contract mdze nad under specific conditions. Such conditions are unsuitable diet and wrong behavior which lead to an imbalance of the three humors and an increase in chu ser nag po in the body. The disease spreads all over the body and affects the skin, bones, nerves, muscles, and blood. Symptoms are a loss of luster of the skin, growing pale of showing a red discoloration of the skin, a change in the voice, roughness and lesions of the skin, itching, loss of body hair and eye brows, serous pimples, swelling in the face and of the limbs, muscular twitching and atrophy, deformation of the nose and the mouth, ulcers, pain in the stomach, liver, muscles, bones or nerves, loss of function of the sense organs, watering eyes and mouth, change in color of the teeth and the white of the eyes. The patient becomes very depressed. There are two types, a hot one (mdze nag) and a cold one (mdze dkar). The hot, more severe types develops quickly and is highly contagious. The patient experiences twisting pain in the heart and is in a state of confusion. The cold type is less contagious and develops more slowly. There are a few ways of diagnosing this disease. In the first place, the changes in the body, speech and mind of the patient are examined by the physician. Then, the discolorations of the face are investigated thoroughly. When pressing the pale, brown of red discoloration at the glabella with the finger, a visible imprint remains. After being pressed the discoloration is of a pale color with dark brown dots. The patient's face is examined by washing it with water. The physician looks closely at the surface of the face, because the water does not moisten the surface properly in those parts where color changes appear. Another diagnostic method is applying a specific medicine and watching the patient's reactions to its ingestion."
*The third main process within the body that is responsible for a disorder. Its mental origin lies in the hatred, anger, aversion, spitefulness, and aggression of man (woman). Its physical origin lies in the Fire Proto-element. Like rLung and Bad-kan, the contributing factor may be due to diet (excess of nutritious or greasy foodstuffs and beverages like alcohol), climate (summer), and behaviour (living under unsanitary conditions). The five - types of mKhris-pa are: (1) 'Ju-byed; (2) mThong-byed; 3) mDog-sel; (4) sGrub-byed; (5) mDangs-sgyur. See Fundamentals of Tibetan Medicine for additional information.
**chu ser: pus; lymph, gore; lymph disorders, literally means a yellow fluid, located mostly in the skin and joints. The waste or residue (snyig ma) from the blood stored in the gall bladder is the chu ser. Sometimes translated as "lymphatic fluid" or "blood serum". Chu ser nad, Kletter, Plants: "These are various diseases arising from an increase in impure blood and chu ser in the body. General symptoms are small, flat pimples, itching, swelling of various parts of the body (sometimes of the whole body), darkening and roughening of the skin and loss of hair from head and eyebrows. Chu ser disorders (Skin affections of various sorts due to serous fluid dysfunction; also includes a pathology close to rheumatoid arthritis)".
Т.е. причина, на самом деле, в "прошлых" жизнях - генетическая предрасположенность!