Leprosy is an infectious disease that causes severe, disfiguring skin sores and nerve damage in the arms, legs, and skin areas around the body. The disease has been around since ancient times, often surrounded by terrifying, negative stigmas and tales of leprosypatients being shunned as outcasts. The oldest civilizations of China, Egypt, and India feared leprosy was an incurable, mutilating, and contagious disease. However, leprosy is actually not that contagious.