Josefina Guerrero was a Filipino spy during World War II, who used the Japanese fear of her leprosy to listen to their battle plans and deliver the information to the American forces under Douglas MacArthur. King Henry IV of England (reigned 1399 to 1413) possibly had leprosy. Vietnamese poet Hàn Mặc Tử
Ōtani Yoshitsugu, a Japanese daimyō

Leprosy in the media
English author Graham Greenes novel A Burnt-Out Case is set in a leper colony in Belgian Congo. The story is also predominantly about a disillusioned architect working with a doctor on devising new cure and amenities for mutilated victims of lepers; the title, too, refers to the condition of mutilation and disfigurement in the disease. Forugh Farrokhzad made a 22-minute documentary about a leprosy colony in Iran in 1962 titled The House Is Black. The film humanizes the people affected and opens by saying that "there is no shortage of ugliness in the world, but by closing our eyes on ugliness, we will intensify it." Molokai is a novel by Alan Brennert about a leper colony in Hawaii. This novel follows the story of a seven year old girl taken from her family and put on the small Hawaiian island of Molokais leper settlement. Even though this is a fiction novel it is based upon some very true and revealing incidents which occurred at this Leprosy settlement. The lead character in The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen R. Donaldson suffers from leprosy.
Leprosy, also known as Hansens disease (HD), is a long-term infection by the bacteria Mycobacterium leprae or Mycobacterium lepromatosis. Infection can lead to damage of the nerves, respiratory tract, skin, and eyes. This nerve damage may result in a lack of ability to feel pain, which can lead to the loss of parts of a persons extremities from repeated injuries or infection through unnoticed wounds. An infected person may also experience muscle weakness and poor eyesight. Leprosy symptoms may begin within one year, but, for some people, symptoms may take 20 years or more to occur.Leprosy is spread between people, although extensive contact is necessary. Leprosy has a low pathogenicity, and  95% of people who contract M. leprae do not develop the disease. Spread is thought to occur through a cough or contact with fluid from the nose of a person infected by leprosy. Genetic factors and immune function play a role in how easily a person catches the disease. Leprosy does not spread during pregnancy to the unborn child or through sexual contact. Leprosy occurs more commonly among people living in poverty. There are two main types of the disease – paucibacillary and multibacillary, which differ in the number of bacteria present. A person with paucibacillary disease has five or fewer poorly-pigmented, numb skin patches, while a person with multibacillary disease has more than five skin patches. The diagnosis is confirmed by finding acid-fast bacilli in a biopsy of the skin.Leprosy is curable with multidrug therapy.