(NEXSTAR) -- Leprosy, a disease with a history as ancient as biblical times, has left an indelible mark on societal perceptions of race. The chronic disease was discovered in 1873 by Norwegian physician Gerhard Hansen and became known as Hansen's disease. Leprosy is spread by respiratory droplets and attacks the skin, nerves, eyes, vital organs and respiratory tract. But in earlier decades, it also attacked Blackness. Leprosy has a complex and often misguided association with Black people, including slaves, who were unjustly linked to leprosy. Africans were seen as biological threats who needed American slavery to contain them rather than as victims of trauma. Physician and abolitionist Benjamin Rush opposed the mistreatment of Black people, yet in a 1788 paper, he reasoned that black skin was a result of leprosy. Though Black people are less susceptible to such diseases as malaria or yellow fever, they are more susceptible to such afflictions as leprosy and tuberculosis, which reifies the racial hierarchy dynamic. Leprosy, which is referenced in the Bible, has been around for thousands of years and existed in Europe and East Africa long before the transatlantic slave trade, yet historical misconceptions have shaped racial dynamics.