Gerhard Armauer Hansen that the leprosy acts of 1877 and 1885 were passed, leading to a steady decline of the disease in Norway from 1,800 known cases in 1875 to just 575 cases in 1901. His distinguished work was recognized at the International Leprosy Congress held at Bergen in 1909. Hansen had suffered from syphilis since the 1860s but died of heart disease. He was an atheist. Gerhard Armauer Hansen Gerhard Henrik Armauer Hansen (29 July 1841 – 12 February 1912) was a Norwegian physician, remembered for his identification of the bacterium "Mycobacterium leprae" in 1873 as the causative agent of leprosy. Hansen
Infectious disease (medical specialty) Infectious disease (medical specialty) Infectious disease, also known as infectious diseases, infectious medicine, infectious disease medicine or infectiology, is a medical specialty dealing with the diagnosis, control and treatment of infections. An infectious disease (ID) specialist's practice may consist largely of managing nosocomial (hospital-acquired) infections, or it may be out-patient based. ID specialists typically serve as consultants to other physicians in cases of complex infections, and often manage patients with HIV/AIDS and other forms of immunodeficiency. Although many common infections are treated by physicians without formal expertise in ID, the ID specialist may be consulted for cases where an infection