Florida, USA, has witnessed an increased incidence of leprosy cases lacking traditional risk factors. Those trends, in addition to decreasing diagnoses in foreign-born persons, contribute to rising evidence that leprosy has become endemic in the southeastern United States. Travel to Florida should be considered when conducting leprosy contact tracing in any state.
Keywords: Florida; Hansen disease; Leprosy; Mycobacterium leprae; United States; armadillos; bacteria; lepromatous leprosy; tuberculosis and other mycobacteria.