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In the article How Armadillos Can Spread Leprosy at the Smithsonian.com they state that

"Even more reassuring: up to 95 percent of the population is genetically unsusceptible to contracting it."

Is this true? From my understanding, as well as a brief overview from Wikipedia, it just seems leprosy is harder to contract then people typically believe, but i cant find anything to source this 95% genetically unsusceptible claim.

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    "Up to 95%" means some percentage from 0 to 95. – DJClayworth Oct 26 '15 at 16:30
  • @DJClayworth yes, but you can see they are stressing the point that people are genetically immune, which i haven't seen elsewhere. – Himarm Oct 26 '15 at 16:34
  • The link they gave as a reference for the 95% doesn't even mention the number 95 or %. http://io9.com/5976108/armadillos-leprosy-and-you – Tim Oct 26 '15 at 23:04
  • @Tim exactly! lol – Himarm Oct 26 '15 at 23:21
  • I found the 5% of non immune population in a [french medical publication](http://ipubli-inserm.inist.fr/bitstream/handle/10608/5276/MS_2004_8-9_729.pdf) page 730 *ref[1]* that refers for that figure to a 1999 [Lancet article by Jacobson RR, Krahenbuhl JL](http://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736%2898%2906322-3.pdf) about leprosy. I couldn't check the full text of the Lancet article to answer to your question. – Graffito Oct 26 '15 at 23:30
  • @Graffito please don't attempt answers in comments. – Sklivvz Oct 26 '15 at 23:33
  • @Sklivvz - I couldn't answer to the question, because I am not able to get access to the potential original source, i.e. the Lancet article. – Graffito Oct 26 '15 at 23:35
  • I'm at a major university and I can't read the Lancet article either. They must be extremely expensive to subscribe to. – Avery Oct 27 '15 at 06:36
  • The lancet article does not give a percentage, only talking about an overwhelming majority "The overwhelming majority of people are not susceptible to leprosy and after typical exposure will not develop it." – Murphy Nov 23 '16 at 13:03

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