Voluisa County, Florida, has experienced an unusual uptick in the diagnoses of a rare disease dating back to biblical times: leprosy. Three patients in the past five months have tested positive for the disease.

Leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease, is caused by bacteria called Mycobacterium leprae. Leprosy causes lesions on the skin, damage to nerves and even blindness and paralysis if not treated promptly. The infected persons may also become more susceptible to fracture or burns on the skin.

The concern surrounding the recent cluster of diagnoses is due more to confusion over how the disease is being transmitted rather than the potential for an outbreak. Since 1995, leprosy has been considered "globally eliminated," meaning the disease has a prevalence rate of less than one case for every 10,000 people.

Before 1981, leprosy was easily cured with a drug called Dapsone. However, the disease has since developed a resistance to Dapsone, so now a multidrug therapy regimen consisting of Dapsone, Rifampicin and Clofazimine is recommended for treatment.

According to the Florida Department of Health, two of the three new cases in Florida are believed to have been caused by interaction with armadillos. Armadillos carry the bacteria that cause leprosy, but the disease is only transmitted through feces or nasal secretions, and can be transmitted from human-to-human from coughing.

The nine-banded armadillo is the only species of armadillo that carries the disease; the more common five-banded armadillo is not a carrier. The link between armadillos and leprosy was established in an article published in 2011 in the New England Journal of Medicine. This link is most likely the reason that the bulk of the 100 reported annual cases are in Texas, Louisiana, Florida and Mississippi, where armadillos are abundant and contact with them is not uncommon.

About 16 million patients have been successfully cured of the disease over the past 20 years with antibiotics, although the treatment can be lengthy, sometimes lasting up to two years. The biggest challenge in diagnosing and treating the disease is its long incubation period — those infected may not have symptoms for 20 years after initially coming into contact with the bacteria.

Most of the concern surrounding leprosy comes because of the stigma surrounding the disease that dates back to biblical times. People with leprosy were believed to have contracted the disease as a punishment for their "ungodliness."

In reality, however, a cluster of diagnoses like that in Florida is rare, and physicians indicate the general population has little to worry about. About 95 percent of the population is immune to the bacteria that cause leprosy. Even if contracted, the disease is highly treatable with a multidrug therapy.