Portside

Nine patients remain of the many former leprosy patients who chose to continue to live in Kalaupapa despite the 1969 repeal of the Hawaii law that exiled them there until death.

A new study in mice suggests that Leprosy employs a bit of biological trickery to do its damage: It reprograms certain nerve cells to become like stem cells and uses them to infiltrate the body's muscle and nervous systems.