title: Gene Wilder

text: Wilder met his first wife, Mary Mercier, while studying at the HB Studio in New York. Although the couple had not been together long, they married on July 22, 1960. They spent long periods of time apart, eventually divorcing in 1965. A few months later, Wilder began dating Mary Joan Schutz, a friend of his sister. Schutz had a daughter, Katharine, from a previous marriage. When Katharine started calling Wilder "Dad", he decided to do what he felt was "the right thing to do", marrying Schutz on October 27, 1967, and adopting Katharine that same year. Schutz and Wilder separated after seven years of marriage, with Katharine suspecting that Wilder was having an affair with his "Young Frankenstein" co-star, Madeline Kahn. After the divorce, he briefly dated his other "Frankenstein" co-star, Teri Garr. Wilder eventually became estranged from Katharine.


title: Gene Wilder

text: Wilder met "Saturday Night Live" actress Gilda Radner on August 13, 1981, while filming Sidney Poitier's "Hanky Panky". Radner was married to guitarist G. E. Smith at the time, but Wilder and she became inseparable friends. When the filming of "Hanky Panky" ended, Wilder found himself missing Radner, so he called her. The relationship grew, and Radner eventually divorced Smith in 1982. She moved in with Wilder, and the couple married on September 14, 1984, in the south of France. The couple wanted to have children, but Radner suffered miscarriages, and doctors could not determine the problem. After experiencing severe fatigue and suffering from pain in her upper legs on the set of "Haunted Honeymoon", Radner sought medical treatment. Following a number of false diagnoses, she was found to have ovarian cancer in October 1986. Over the next year and a half, Radner battled the disease, receiving chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatments. The disease finally went into remission, giving the couple a respite, during which time Wilder filmed "See No Evil, Hear No Evil". By May 1989, the cancer returned and had metastasized. Radner died on May 20, 1989. Wilder later stated, "I always thought she'd pull through."


title: Gene Wilder

text: Following Radner's death, Wilder became active in promoting cancer awareness and treatment, helping found the Gilda Radner Ovarian Cancer Detection Center in Los Angeles and co-founding Gilda's Club, a support group to raise awareness of cancer that began in New York City and now has branches throughout the country.


title: Gene Wilder

text: While preparing for his role as a deaf man in "See No Evil, Hear No Evil", Wilder met Karen Webb (née Boyer), who was a clinical supervisor for the New York League for the Hard of Hearing. Webb coached him in lip reading. Following Gilda Radner's death, Wilder and Webb reconnected, and on September 8, 1991, they married. The two lived in Stamford, Connecticut, in the 1734 Colonial home that he had shared with Radner.


title: Gene Wilder

text: In 2007, Wilder stated, "I'm quietly political. I don't like advertising. Giving money to someone or support, but not getting on a bandstand. I don't want to run for president in 2008. I will write another book instead." Wilder donated to Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign.


title: Gene Wilder

text: The Wilders spent most of their time painting watercolors, writing, and participating in charitable efforts.


title: Gene Wilder

text: In 1998, Wilder collaborated on the book "Gilda's Disease" with oncologist Steven Piver, sharing personal experiences of Radner's struggle with ovarian cancer. Wilder himself was hospitalized with non-Hodgkin lymphoma in 1999, but confirmed in March 2005 that the cancer was in complete remission following chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant.


title: Gene Wilder

text: In October 2001, he read from "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" as part of a special benefit performance held at the Westport Country Playhouse to aid families affected by the September 11 attacks. Also in 2001, Wilder donated a collection of scripts, correspondences, documents, photographs, and clipped images to the University of Iowa Libraries.


title: Gene Wilder

text: On March 1, 2005, Wilder released his highly personal memoir, "Kiss Me Like a Stranger: My Search for Love and Art", an account of his life covering everything from his childhood up to Radner's death. Two years later, in March 2007, Wilder released his first novel, "My French Whore", which is set during World War I. His second novel, "The Woman Who Wouldn't", was released in March 2008.


title: Gene Wilder

text: In a 2008 Turner Classic Movies special, "Role Model: Gene Wilder", where Alec Baldwin interviewed Wilder about his career, Wilder said that he was basically retired from acting for good. "I don't like show business, I realized," he explained. "I like show, but I don't like the business."


title: Gene Wilder

text: In 2010, Wilder released a collection of stories called "What Is This Thing Called Love?" His third novel, "Something to Remember You By: A Perilous Romance", was released in April 2013.


title: Gene Wilder

text: When asked in a 2013 "Time Out New York" magazine interview whether he would act again if a suitable film project came his way, Wilder responded, "I'm tired of watching the bombing, shooting, killing, swearing and 3-D. I get 52 movies a year sent to me, and maybe there are three good [ones]. That's why I went into writing. It's not that I wouldn't act again. I'd say, 'Give me the script. If it's something wonderful, I'll do it.' But I don't get anything like that."


title: Gene Wilder

text: In the 2010s, a still from the movie "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory" featuring Wilder became a popular Internet meme known as Condescending Wonka.


title: Gene Wilder

text: Wilder died at the age of 83 on August 29, 2016, at home in Stamford, Connecticut, from complications of Alzheimer's disease. He had been diagnosed 3 years before his death but kept knowledge of his condition private. Wilder's nephew Jordan Walker-Pearlman said that this was done to not sadden fans of "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory", stating:


title: Gene Wilder

text: According to his family, Wilder died while listening to one of his favorite songs, a rendition of "Over the Rainbow" sung by Ella Fitzgerald.


title: Gene Wilder

text: Mel Brooks, as a guest on "The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon", spoke about his grief, stating: "He was such a dear friend. I expected that he would go—but when it happens, it's still tremendous. It's a big shock. I'm still reeling. No more Gene? ... He was such a wonderful part of my life."


title: Gene Wilder

text: Various celebrities shared their grief for the comedian on Twitter such as Carl Reiner, Albert Brooks, Billy Crystal, Julia Louis Dreyfus, and Russell Crowe. James Corden gave a tribute to Wilder on his show "The Late Late Show with James Corden" saying "He was just a magical person, and he made everybody around him feel this incredible feeling of joy".


title: Gene Wilder

text: Wilder was included in the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences In Memoriam montage during the Oscars telecast.


title: Leprosy

text: Leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease (HD), is a long-term infection by the bacteria "Mycobacterium leprae" or "Mycobacterium lepromatosis". Infection can lead to damage of the nerves, respiratory tract, skin, and eyes. This nerve damage may result in a lack of ability to feel pain, which can lead to the loss of parts of a person's extremities from repeated injuries or infection through unnoticed wounds. An infected person may also experience muscle weakness and poor eyesight. Leprosy symptoms may begin within one year, but, for some people, symptoms may take 20 years or more to occur.


title: Leprosy

text: Leprosy is spread between people, although extensive contact is necessary. Leprosy has a low pathogenicity, and 95% of people who contract "M. leprae" do not develop the disease. Spread is thought to occur through a cough or contact with fluid from the nose of a person infected by leprosy. Genetic factors and immune function play a role in how easily a person catches the disease. Leprosy does not spread during pregnancy to the unborn child or through sexual contact. Leprosy occurs more commonly among people living in poverty. There are two main types of the disease – paucibacillary and multibacillary, which differ in the number of bacteria present. A person with paucibacillary disease has five or fewer poorly-pigmented, numb skin patches, while a person with multibacillary disease has more than five skin patches. The diagnosis is confirmed by finding acid-fast bacilli in a biopsy of the skin.


title: Leprosy

text: Leprosy is curable with multidrug therapy. Treatment of paucibacillary leprosy is with the medications dapsone, rifampicin, and clofazimine for six months. Treatment for multibacillary leprosy uses the same medications for 12 months. A number of other antibiotics may also be used. These treatments are provided free of charge by the World Health Organization.


title: Leprosy

text: Leprosy is not highly contagious. People with leprosy can live with their families and go to school and work. In the 1980s, there were 5.2 million cases globally but went down to less than 0.2 million by 2020. Most new cases occur in 14 countries, with India accounting for more than half. In the 20 years from 1994 to 2014, 16 million people worldwide were cured of leprosy. About 200 cases per year are reported in the United States. Separating people affected by leprosy by placing them in leper colonies still occurs in some areas of India, China, areas in the African continent, and Thailand.


title: Leprosy

text: Leprosy has affected humanity for thousands of years. The disease takes its name from the Greek word (), from (; 'scale'), while the term "Hansen's disease" is named after the Norwegian physician Gerhard Armauer Hansen. Leprosy has historically been associated with social stigma, which continues to be a barrier to self-reporting and early treatment. Some consider the word "leper" offensive, preferring the phrase "person affected with leprosy". Leprosy is classified as a neglected tropical disease. World Leprosy Day was started in 1954 to draw awareness to those affected by leprosy.


title: Leprosy

text: Common symptoms present in the different types of leprosy include a runny nose; dry scalp; eye problems; skin lesions; muscle weakness; reddish skin; smooth, shiny, diffuse thickening of facial skin, ear, and hand; loss of sensation in fingers and toes; thickening of peripheral nerves; a flat nose from destruction of nasal cartilage; and changes in phonation and other aspects of speech production. In addition, atrophy of the testes and impotence may occur.


title: Leprosy

text: Leprosy can affect people in different ways. The average incubation period is five years. People may begin to notice symptoms within the first year or up to 20 years after infection. The first noticeable sign of leprosy is often the development of pale or pink coloured patches of skin that may be insensitive to temperature or pain. Patches of discolored skin are sometimes accompanied or preceded by nerve problems including numbness or tenderness in the hands or feet. Secondary infections (additional bacterial or viral infections) can result in tissue loss, causing fingers and toes to become shortened and deformed, as cartilage is absorbed into the body. A person's immune response differs depending on the form of leprosy.


title: Leprosy

text: Approximately 30% of people affected with leprosy experience nerve damage. The nerve damage sustained is reversible when treated early, but becomes permanent when appropriate treatment is delayed by several months. Damage to nerves may cause loss of muscle function, leading to paralysis. It may also lead to sensation abnormalities or numbness, which may lead to additional infections, ulcerations, and joint deformities.


title: Leprosy

text: "M. leprae" and "M. lepromatosis" are the mycobacteria that cause leprosy. "M. lepromatosis" is a relatively newly identified mycobacterium isolated from a fatal case of diffuse lepromatous leprosy in 2008. "M. lepromatosis" is indistinguishable clinically from "M. leprae".


title: Leprosy

text: "M. leprae" is an intracellular, acid-fast bacterium that is aerobic and rod-shaped. "M. leprae" is surrounded by the waxy cell envelope coating characteristic of the genus "Mycobacterium".


title: Leprosy

text: Genetically, "M. leprae" and "M. lepromatosis" lack the genes that are necessary for independent growth. "M. leprae" and "M. lepromatosis" are obligate intracellular pathogens, and can not be grown (cultured) in the laboratory. The inability to culture "M. leprae" and "M. lepromatosis" has resulted in a difficulty definitively identifying the bacterial organism under a strict interpretation of Koch's postulates.


title: Leprosy

text: While the causative organisms have to date been impossible to culture "in vitro", it has been possible to grow them in animals such as mice and armadillos.


title: Leprosy

text: Naturally occurring infection has been reported in nonhuman primates (including the African chimpanzee, the sooty mangabey, and the cynomolgus macaque), armadillos, and red squirrels. Multilocus sequence typing of the armadillo "M. leprae" strains suggests that they were of human origin for at most a few hundred years. Thus, it is suspected that armadillos first acquired the organism incidentally from early American explorers. This incidental transmission was sustained in the armadillo population, and it may be transmitted back to humans, making leprosy a zoonotic disease (spread between humans and animals).


title: Leprosy

text: Red squirrels ("Sciurus vulgaris"), a threatened species in Great Britain, were found to carry leprosy in November 2016. It has been suggested that the trade in red squirrel fur, highly prized in the medieval period and intensively traded, may have been responsible for the leprosy epidemic in medieval Europe. A pre-Norman-era skull excavated in Hoxne, Suffolk, in 2017 was found to carry DNA from a strain of "Mycobacterium leprae," which closely matched the strain carried by modern red squirrels on Brownsea Island, UK.


title: Leprosy

text: The greatest risk factor for developing leprosy is contact with another person infected by leprosy. People who are exposed to a person who has leprosy are 5–8 times more likely to develop leprosy than members of the general population. Leprosy also occurs more commonly among those living in poverty. Not all people who are infected with "M. leprae" develop symptoms.


title: Leprosy

text: Conditions that reduce immune function, such as malnutrition, other illnesses, or genetic mutations, may increase the risk of developing leprosy. Infection with HIV does not appear to increase the risk of developing leprosy. Certain genetic factors in the person exposed have been associated with developing lepromatous or tuberculoid leprosy.


title: Leprosy

text: Transmission of leprosy occurs during close contact with those who are infected. Transmission of leprosy is through the upper respiratory tract. Older research suggested the skin as the main route of transmission, but recent research has increasingly favored the respiratory route.


title: Leprosy

text: Leprosy is not sexually transmitted and is not spread through pregnancy to the unborn child. The majority (95%) of people who are exposed to "M. leprae" do not develop leprosy; casual contact such as shaking hands and sitting next to someone with leprosy does not lead to transmission. People are considered non-infectious 72 hours after starting appropriate multi-drug therapy.


title: Leprosy

text: Two exit routes of "M. leprae" from the human body often described are the skin and the nasal mucosa, although their relative importance is not clear. Lepromatous cases show large numbers of organisms deep in the dermis, but whether they reach the skin surface in sufficient numbers is doubtful.


title: Leprosy

text: Leprosy may also be transmitted to humans by armadillos, although the mechanism is not fully understood.


title: Leprosy

text: Not all people who are infected or exposed to "M. leprae" develop leprosy, and genetic factors are suspected to play a role in susceptibility to an infection. Cases of leprosy often cluster in families and several genetic variants have been identified. In many people who are exposed, the immune system is able to eliminate the leprosy bacteria during the early infection stage before severe symptoms develop. A genetic defect in cell-mediated immunity may cause a person to be susceptible to develop leprosy symptoms after exposure to the bacteria. The region of DNA responsible for this variability is also involved in Parkinson's disease, giving rise to current speculation that the two disorders may be linked at the biochemical level.


title: Leprosy

text: Most leprosy complications are the result of nerve damage. The nerve damage occurs from direct invasion by the "M. leprae" bacteria and a person's immune response resulting in inflammation. The molecular mechanism underlying how "M. leprae" produces the symptoms of leprosy is not clear, but "M. leprae" has been shown to bind to Schwann cells, which may lead to nerve injury including demyelination and a loss of nerve function (specifically a loss of axonal conductance). Numerous molecular mechanisms have been associated with this nerve damage including the presence of a laminin-binding protein and the glycoconjugate (PGL-1) on the surface of "M. leprae" that can bind to laminin on peripheral nerves.


title: Leprosy

text: As part of the human immune response, white blood cell-derived macrophages may engulf "M. leprae" by phagocytosis.


title: Leprosy

text: In the initial stages, small sensory and autonomic nerve fibers in the skin of a person with leprosy are damaged. This damage usually results in hair loss to the area, a loss of the ability to sweat, and numbness (decreased ability to detect sensations such as temperature and touch). Further peripheral nerve damage may result in skin dryness, more numbness, and muscle weaknesses or paralysis in the area affected. The skin can crack and if the skin injuries are not carefully cared for, there is a risk for a secondary infection that can lead to more severe damage.


title: Leprosy

text: In countries where people are frequently infected, a person is considered to have leprosy if they have one of the following two signs:


title: Leprosy

text: Skin lesions can be single or many, and usually hypopigmented, although occasionally reddish or copper-colored. The lesions may be flat (macules), raised (papules), or solid elevated areas (nodular). Experiencing sensory loss at the skin lesion is a feature that can help determine if the lesion is caused by leprosy or by another disorder such as tinea versicolor. Thickened nerves are associated with leprosy and can be accompanied by loss of sensation or muscle weakness, but muscle weakness without the characteristic skin lesion and sensory loss is not considered a reliable sign of leprosy.


title: Leprosy

text: In some cases, acid-fast leprosy bacilli in skin smears are considered diagnostic; however, the diagnosis is typically made without laboratory tests, based on symptoms. If a person has a new leprosy diagnosis and already has a visible disability caused by leprosy, the diagnosis is considered late.


title: Leprosy

text: In countries or areas where leprosy is uncommon, such as the United States, diagnosis of leprosy is often delayed because healthcare providers are unaware of leprosy and its symptoms. Early diagnosis and treatment prevent nerve involvement, the hallmark of leprosy, and the disability it causes.


title: Leprosy

text: There is no recommended test to diagnose latent leprosy in people without symptoms. Few people with latent leprosy test positive for anti PGL-1. The presence of "M. leprae" bacterial DNA can be identified using a polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based technique. This molecular test alone is not sufficient to diagnose a person, but this approach may be used to identify someone who is at high risk of developing or transmitting leprosy such as those with few lesions or an atypical clinical presentation.


title: Leprosy

text: Several different approaches for classifying leprosy exist. There are similarities between the classification approaches.


title: Leprosy

text: Early detection of the disease is important, since physical and neurological damage may be irreversible even if cured. Medications can decrease the risk of those living with people who have leprosy from acquiring the disease and likely those with whom people with leprosy come into contact outside the home. The WHO recommends that preventive medicine be given to people who are in close contact with someone who has leprosy. The suggested preventive treatment is a single dose of rifampicin (SDR) in adults and children over 2 years old who do not already have leprosy or tuberculosis. Preventive treatment is associated with a 57% reduction in infections within 2 years and a 30% reduction in infections within 6 years.


title: Leprosy

text: The Bacillus Calmette–Guérin (BCG) vaccine offers a variable amount of protection against leprosy in addition to its closely related target of tuberculosis. It appears to be 26% to 41% effective (based on controlled trials) and about 60% effective based on observational studies with two doses possibly working better than one. The WHO concluded in 2018 that the BCG vaccine at birth reduces leprosy risk and is recommended in countries with high incidence of TB and people who have leprosy. People living in the same home as a person with leprosy are suggested to take a BCG booster which may improve their immunity by 56%. Development of a more effective vaccine is ongoing.


title: Leprosy

text: A novel vaccine called LepVax entered clinical trials in 2017 with the first encouraging results reported on 24 participants published in 2020. If successful, this would be the first leprosy-specific vaccine available.


title: Leprosy

text: A number of leprostatic agents are available for treatment. A three-drug regimen of rifampicin, dapsone and clofazimine is recommended for all people with leprosy, for six months for paucibacillary leprosy and 12 months for multibacillary leprosy.


title: Leprosy

text: Multidrug therapy (MDT) remains highly effective, and people are no longer infectious after the first monthly dose. It is safe and easy to use under field conditions because of its presentation in calendar blister packs. Post-treatment relapse rates remain low. Resistance has been reported in several countries, although the number of cases is small. People with rifampicin-resistant leprosy may be treated with second line drugs such as fluoroquinolones, minocycline, or clarithromycin, but the treatment duration is 24 months because of their lower bactericidal activity. Evidence on the potential benefits and harms of alternative regimens for drug-resistant leprosy is not yet available.


title: Leprosy

text: For people with nerve damage, protective footwear may help prevent ulcers and secondary infection. Canvas shoes may be better than PVC boots. There may be no difference between double rocker shoes and below-knee plaster.


title: Leprosy

text: Topical ketanserin seems to have a better effect on ulcer healing than clioquinol cream or zinc paste, but the evidence for this is weak. Phenytoin applied to the skin improves skin changes to a greater degree when compared to saline dressings.


title: Leprosy

text: Although leprosy has been curable since the mid-20th century, left untreated it can cause permanent physical impairments and damage to a person's nerves, skin, eyes, and limbs. Despite leprosy not being very infectious and having a low pathogenicity, there is still significant stigma and prejudice associated with the disease. Because of this stigma, leprosy can affect a person's participation in social activities and may also affect the lives of their family and friends. People with leprosy are also at a higher risk for problems with their mental well-being. The social stigma may contribute to problems obtaining employment, financial difficulties, and social isolation. Efforts to reduce discrimination and reduce the stigma surrounding leprosy may help improve outcomes for people with leprosy.


title: Leprosy

text: In 2018, there were 208,619 new cases of leprosy recorded, a slight decrease from 2017. In 2015, 94% of the new leprosy cases were confined to 14 countries. India reported the greatest number of new cases (60% of reported cases), followed by Brazil (13%) and Indonesia (8%). Although the number of cases worldwide continues to fall, there are parts of the world where leprosy is more common, including Brazil, South Asia (India, Nepal, Bhutan), some parts of Africa (Tanzania, Madagascar, Mozambique), and the western Pacific. About 150 to 250 cases are diagnosed in the United States each year.


title: Leprosy

text: In the 1960s, there were tens of millions of leprosy cases recorded when the bacteria started to develop resistance to dapsone, the most common treatment option at the time. International (e.g., the WHO's "Global Strategy for Reducing Disease Burden Due to Leprosy") and national (e.g., the International Federation of Anti-Leprosy Associations) initiatives have reduced the total number and the number of new cases of the disease.


title: Leprosy

text: The number of new leprosy cases is difficult to measure and monitor because of leprosy's long incubation period, delays in diagnosis after onset of the disease, and lack of medical care in affected areas. The registered prevalence of the disease is used to determine disease burden. Registered prevalence is a useful proxy indicator of the disease burden, as it reflects the number of active leprosy cases diagnosed with the disease and receiving treatment with MDT at a given point in time. The prevalence rate is defined as the number of cases registered for MDT treatment among the population in which the cases have occurred, again at a given point in time.


title: Leprosy

text: Using comparative genomics, in 2005, geneticists traced the origins and worldwide distribution of leprosy from East Africa or the Near East along human migration routes. They found four strains of "M. leprae" with specific regional locations. Strain 1 occurs predominantly in Asia, the Pacific region, and East Africa; strain 4, in West Africa and the Caribbean; strain 3 in Europe, North Africa, and the Americas; and strain 2 only in Ethiopia, Malawi, Nepal, north India, and New Caledonia.


title: Leprosy

text: This confirms the spread of the disease along the migration, colonisation, and slave trade routes taken from East Africa to India, West Africa to the New World, and from Africa into Europe and vice versa.


title: Leprosy

text: Skeletal remains discovered in 2009 represent the oldest documented evidence for leprosy, dating to the 2nd millennium BC. Located at Balathal, Rajasthan, in northwest India, the discoverers suggest that, if the disease did migrate from Africa to India during the 3rd millennium BC "at a time when there was substantial interaction among the Indus Civilization, Mesopotamia, and Egypt, there needs to be additional skeletal and molecular evidence of leprosy in India and Africa to confirm the African origin of the disease." A proven human case was verified by DNA taken from the shrouded remains of a man discovered in a tomb next to the Old City of Jerusalem, Palestine, dated by radiocarbon methods to the first half of the 1st century.


title: Leprosy

text: The oldest strains of leprosy known from Europe are from Great Chesterford in southeast England and dating back to AD 415–545. These findings suggest a different path for the spread of leprosy, meaning it may have originated in Western Eurasia. This study also indicates that there were more strains in Europe at the time than previously determined.


title: Leprosy

text: Literary attestation of leprosy is unclear because of the ambiguity of many early sources, including the Indian Atharvaveda and Kausika Sutra, the Egyptian Ebers papyrus, and the Hebrew Bible's various sections regarding signs of impurity ("tzaraath"). Clearly leprotic symptoms are attested in the Indian doctor Sushruta's "Compendium", originally dating to c. 600 BC but only surviving in emended texts no earlier than the 5th century. They were separately described by Hippocrates in 460 BC. However, Hansen's disease probably did not exist in Greece or the Middle East before the Common Era. In 1846, Francis Adams produced "The Seven Books of Paulus Aegineta" which included a commentary on all medical and surgical knowledge and descriptions and remedies to do with leprosy from the Romans, Greeks, and Arabs.


title: Leprosy

text: Leprosy did not exist in the Americas before colonization by modern Europeans nor did it exist in Polynesia until the middle of the 19th century.


title: Leprosy

text: The causative agent of leprosy, "M. leprae", was discovered by G. H. Armauer Hansen in Norway in 1873, making it the first bacterium to be identified as causing disease in humans.


title: Leprosy

text: The first effective treatment (promin) became available in the 1940s. In the 1950s, dapsone was introduced. The search for further effective antileprosy drugs led to the use of clofazimine and rifampicin in the 1960s and 1970s. Later, Indian scientist Shantaram Yawalkar and his colleagues formulated a combined therapy using rifampicin and dapsone, intended to mitigate bacterial resistance. Multi-drug therapy (MDT) combining all three drugs was first recommended by the WHO in 1981. These three antileprosy drugs are still used in the standard MDT regimens.


title: Leprosy

text: Leprosy was once believed to be highly contagious and was treated with mercury, as was syphilis, which was first described in 1530. Many early cases thought to be leprosy could actually have been syphilis.


title: Leprosy

text: Resistance has developed to initial treatment. Until the introduction of MDT in the early 1980s, leprosy could not be diagnosed and treated successfully within the community.


title: Leprosy

text: Japan still has sanatoriums (although Japan's sanatoriums no longer have active leprosy cases, nor are survivors held in them by law).


title: Leprosy

text: The importance of the nasal mucosa in the transmission of "M leprae" was recognized as early as 1898 by Schäffer, in particular, that of the ulcerated mucosa. The mechanism of plantar ulceration in leprosy and its treatment was first described by Dr Ernest W Price.


title: Leprosy

text: The word "leprosy" comes from the Greek word "λέπος (lépos) – skin" and "λεπερός (leperós) – scaly man".


title: Leprosy

text: British India enacted the Leprosy Act of 1898 which institutionalized those affected and segregated them by sex to prevent reproduction. The act was difficult to enforce but was repealed in 1983 only after multidrug therapy had become widely available. In 1983, the National Leprosy Elimination Programme, previously the National Leprosy Control Programme, changed its methods from surveillance to the treatment of people with leprosy. India still accounts for over half of the global disease burden. According to WHO, new cases in India during 2019 diminished to 114,451 patients (57% of the world's total new cases).


title: Leprosy

text: Between 1995 and 1999, the WHO, with the aid of the Nippon Foundation, supplied all endemic countries with free multidrug therapy in blister packs, channeled through ministries of health. This free provision was extended in 2000 and again in 2005, 2010 and 2015 with donations by the multidrug therapy manufacturer Novartis through the WHO. In the latest agreement signed between the company and the WHO in October 2015, the provision of free multidrug therapy by the WHO to all endemic countries will run until the end of 2025. At the national level, nongovernment organizations affiliated with the national program will continue to be provided with an appropriate free supply of multidrug therapy by the WHO.


title: Leprosy

text: Written accounts of leprosy date back thousands of years. Various skin diseases translated as leprosy appear in the ancient Indian text, the "Atharava Veda", by 600 BC. Another Indian text, the "Manusmriti" (200 BC),  prohibited contact with those infected with the disease and made marriage to a person infected with leprosy punishable.


title: Leprosy

text: The Hebraic root tsara or tsaraath (צָרַע, – tsaw-rah' – to be struck with leprosy, to be leprous) and the Greek (λεπρός–lepros), are of broader classification than the more narrow use of the term related to Hansen's Disease. Any progressive skin disease (a whitening or splotchy bleaching of the skin, raised manifestations of scales, scabs, infections, rashes, etc...), as well as generalized molds and surface discoloration of any clothing, leather, or discoloration on walls or surfaces throughout homes all, came under the "law of leprosy" (Leviticus 14:54–57). Ancient sources such as the Talmud (Sifra 63) make clear that" tzaraath" refers to various types of lesions or stains associated with ritual impurity and occurring on cloth, leather, or houses, as well as skin. Traditional Judaism and Jewish rabbinical authorities, both historical and modern, emphasize that the "tsaraath" of Leviticus is a spiritual ailment with no direct relationship to Hansen's disease or physical contagions. The relation of "tsaraath" to "leprosy" comes from translations of Hebrew Biblical texts into Greek and ensuing misconceptions.


title: Leprosy

text: All three Synoptic Gospels of the New Testament describe instances of Jesus healing people with leprosy (Matthew 8:1–4, Mark 1:40–45, and Luke 5:12–16). The Bible's description of leprosy is congruous (if lacking detail) with the symptoms of modern leprosy, but the relationship between this disease, "tzaraath", and Hansen's disease has been disputed. The biblical perception that people with leprosy were unclean can be found in a passage from Leviticus 13: 44–46. While this text defines the leper as impure, it did not explicitly make a moral judgement on those with leprosy. Some Early Christians believed that those affected by leprosy were being punished by God for sinful behavior. Moral associations have persisted throughout history. Pope Gregory the Great (540–604) and Isidor of Seville (560–636) considered people with the disease to be heretics.


title: Leprosy

text: The social perception of leprosy in the general population was in general mixed. On one hand, people feared getting infected with the disease and thought of people suspected of leprosy to be unclean, untrustworthy, and occasionally morally corrupt. On the other hand, Jesus' interaction with lepers, the writing of church leaders and the Christian focus on charitable works led to viewing the lepers as "chosen by God" or seeing the disease as a means of obtaining access to heaven.


title: Leprosy

text: Early medieval understanding of leprosy was influenced by early Christian writers such as Gregory of Nazianzus of John Chrysostom whose writing were later embraced


title: Leprosy

text: by Byzantine and Latin writers. Gregory for example did not only compose sermons urging Christians to assist victims of the disease but also condemned pagans or Christians who justified rejecting lepers on the allegation that God had sent them the disease to punish them. As cases of leprosy increased during these years in the Eastern Roman Empire, becoming a major health issue, the ecclesiastic leaders of the time discussed how to assist those affected as well as change the attitude of society towards them. They also tried this by using the name "Holy disease" instead of the commonly used "Elephant's disease" (elephantiasis), implying that God did not create this disease to punish people but to purify them for heaven. Although not always successful in persuading the public and a cure was never found by Greek medicians, they created an environment where victims could get palliative care and were never expressly banned from society, as sometimes happened in Western Europe. Theodore Balsamon, a 12th century jurist in Constantinople noted that lepers were allowed to enter the same churches, cities and assemblies that healthy people attended.


title: Leprosy

text: As the disease became more prevalent in Western Europe in the fifth century, first efforts to set up permanent institutions to house and feed lepers were made for instance by bishops in France at the end of the sixth century, such as in Chalon-sur-Saône. The increase in hospitals or leprosaria (sing. leprosarium) that treated people with leprosy in the 12th and 13th century seems to indicate a rise in cases, possibly in connection with the increase in urbanification as well as returning crusaders from the Middle East. France alone had nearly 2,000 leprosaria during this period. Additionally to the new leprosia, further steps were taken by secular and religious leaders to prevent further spread of the disease. The third Lateran Council of 1179 required lepers to have their own priests and churches and a 1346 edict by King Edward expelled lepers from city limits. Segregation from mainstream society became common, and people with leprosy were often required to wear clothing that identified them as such or carry a bell announcing their presence. As in the East, it was the Church who took care of the lepers due to the still persisting moral stigma and who ran the leprosaria. Although the leprosaria in Western Europe removed the sick from society, they were never a place to quarantine them or from which they could not leave: lepers would go beg for alms for the upkeep of the leprosaria or meet with their families.


title: Leprosy

text: Norway was the location of a progressive stance on leprosy tracking and treatment and played an influential role in European understanding of the disease. In 1832, Dr. JJ Hjort conducted the first leprosy survey, thus establishing a basis for epidemiological surveys. Subsequent surveys resulted in the establishment of a national leprosy registry to study the causes of leprosy and for tracking the rate of infection.


title: Leprosy

text: Early leprosy research throughout Europe was conducted by Norwegian scientists Daniel Cornelius Danielssen and Carl Wilhelm Boeck. Their work resulted in the establishment of the National Leprosy Research and Treatment Center. Danielssen and Boeck believed the cause of leprosy transmission was hereditary. This stance was influential in advocating for the isolation of those infected by sex to prevent reproduction.


title: Leprosy

text: Though leprosy in Europe was again on the decline by the 1860s, Western countries embraced isolation treatment out of fear of the spread of disease from developing countries, minimal understanding of bacteriology, lack of diagnostic ability or knowledge of how contagious the disease was, and missionary activity. Growing imperialism and pressures of the industrial revolution resulted in a Western presence in countries where leprosy was endemic, namely the British presence in India. Isolation treatment methods were observed by Surgeon-Mayor Henry Vandyke Carter of the British Colony in India while visiting Norway, and these methods were applied in India with the financial and logistical assistance of religious missionaries. Colonial and religious influence and associated stigma continued to be a major factor in the treatment and public perception of leprosy in endemic developing countries until the mid-twentieth century.


title: Leprosy

text: The National Leprosarium at Carville, Louisiana, known in 1955 as the Louisiana Leper Home, was the only leprosy hospital on the mainland United States. Leprosy patients from all over the United States were sent to Carville in order to be kept in isolation away from the public, as not much about leprosy transmission was known at the time and stigma against those with leprosy was high (see Leprosy stigma). The Carville leprosarium was known for its innovations in reconstructive surgery for those with leprosy. In 1941, 22 patients at Carville underwent trials for a new drug called promin. The results were described as miraculous, and soon after the success of promin came dapsone, a medicine even more effective in the fight against leprosy.


title: Leprosy

text: Despite now effective treatment and education efforts, leprosy stigma continues to be problematic in developing countries where the disease is common. Leprosy is most common amongst impoverished populations where social stigma is likely to be compounded by poverty. Fears of ostracism, loss of employment, or expulsion from family and society may contribute to a delayed diagnosis and treatment.


title: Leprosy

text: Folk beliefs, lack of education, and religious connotations of the disease continue to influence social perceptions of those affected in many parts of the world. In Brazil, for example, folklore holds that leprosy is a disease transmitted by dogs, or that it is associated with sexual promiscuity, or that it is a punishment for sins or moral transgressions (distinct from other diseases and misfortunes, which are in general thought of as being according to the will of God). Socioeconomic factors also have a direct impact. Lower-class domestic workers who are often employed by those in a higher socioeconomic class may find their employment in jeopardy as physical manifestations of the disease become apparent. Skin discoloration and darker pigmentation resulting from the disease also have social repercussions.


title: Leprosy

text: In extreme cases in northern India, leprosy is equated with an "untouchable" status that "often persists long after individuals with leprosy have been cured of the disease, creating lifelong prospects of divorce, eviction, loss of employment, and ostracism from family and social networks."


title: Leprosy

text: A goal of the World Health Organization is to "eliminate leprosy" and in 2016 the organization launched "Global Leprosy Strategy 2016–2020: Accelerating towards a leprosy-free world". Elimination of leprosy is defined as "reducing the proportion of leprosy patients in the community to very low levels, specifically to below one case per 10 000 population". Diagnosis and treatment with multidrug therapy are effective, and a 45% decline in disease burden has occurred since multidrug therapy has become more widely available. The organization emphasizes the importance of fully integrating leprosy treatment into public health services, effective diagnosis and treatment, and access to information. The approach includes supporting an increase in health care professionals who understand the disease, and a coordinated and renewed political commitment that includes coordination between countries and improvements in the methodology for collecting and analysing data.


title: Leprosy

text: In some instances in India, community-based rehabilitation is embraced by local governments and NGOs alike. Often, the identity cultivated by a community environment is preferable to reintegration, and models of self-management and collective agency independent of NGOs and government support have been desirable and successful.


title: Leprosy

text: Wild nine-banded armadillos ("Dasypus novemcinctus") in south central United States often carry "Mycobacterium leprae". This is believed to be because armadillos have a low body temperature. Leprosy lesions appear mainly in cooler body regions such as the skin and mucous membranes of the upper respiratory tract. Because of armadillos' armor, skin lesions are hard to see. Abrasions around the eyes, nose and feet are the most common signs. Infected armadillos make up a large reservoir of "M. leprae" and may be a source of infection for some humans in the United States or other locations in the armadillos' home range. In armadillo leprosy, lesions do not persist at the site of entry in animals, "M. leprae" multiply in macrophages at the site of inoculation and lymph nodes.


title: Leprosy

text: A recent outbreak in chimpanzees in West Africa is showing that the bacteria can infect another species and also possibly have additional rodent hosts.


title: Leprosy

text: Recent studies have demonstrated that the disease is endemic in the UK red Eurasian squirrel population, with "Mycobacterium leprae" and "Mycobacterium lepromatosis" appearing in different populations. The Mycobacteria leprae strain discovered on Brownsea Island is equated to one thought to have died out in the human population in mediaeval times. Despite this, and speculation regarding past transmission through trade in squirrel furs, there does not seem to be a high risk of squirrel to human transmission from the wild population: although leprosy continues to be diagnosed in immigrants to the UK, the last known human case of leprosy arising in the UK was recorded over 200 years ago.


title: Leprosy

text: It has been shown that leprosy can reprogram cells in mouse and armadillos models similarly as how Induced pluripotent stem cells are generated by the transcription factors Myc, Oct3/4, Sox2 and Klf4.


title: T-72

text: The T-72 is a family of Soviet/Russian main battle tanks that entered production in 1969. The T-72 was a development of the T-64, which was troubled by high costs and its reliance on immature developmental technology. About 25,000 T-72 tanks have been built, and refurbishment has enabled many to remain in service for decades. It has been widely exported and has seen service in 40 countries and in numerous conflicts. The T-90 introduced in 1992 is a development of the T-72B; production and development of various modernized T-72 models continues today.


title: T-72

text: The T-72 was a product of a rivalry between design teams. Morozov KB was led by Alexander Morozov in Kharkiv. Uralvagon KB was led by Leonid Kartsev in Nizhny Tagil.


title: T-72

text: To improve on the T-62, two designs based on the tank were tested in 1964: Nizhny Tagil's Object 167 (T-62B) and Kharkiv's Object 434.


title: T-72

text: Ob. 434 was a technically ambitious prototype. Under the direction of Morozov in Kharkiv, a new design emerged with the hull reduced to the minimum size possible. To do this, the crew was reduced to three soldiers, removing the loader by introducing an automated loading system.


title: T-72

text: Ob. 167 was designed based on an Object 140 rebuilt by Kartsev and Valeri Venediktov. Ob. 167 was more advanced than Kartsev's Ob. 165 and Ob. 166, and was also Kartsev's favored model. In October 1961, when asked to ready Ob. 166 for production, Kartsev disagreed and instead offered to prepare the Ob. 167. This suggestion was rejected, and the Ob. 166 and Ob. 165 were readied as the T-62 and T-62A respectively. Unlike the Kharkiv tank, it eschewed the state-of-the-art. Prototypes used the turret from the T-62, and a manual loader. In 1964, the tank underwent comparative testing with the Ob. 434, in which the former proved its superiority to both the T-62 and T-55. Ob. 167 was favored by Uralvagonzavod director I.V. Okunev and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, who believed the tank was more affordable. Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union Dmitry Ustinov, believed the parallel development of Ob. 167 jeopardized the future of the Kharkiv tank. In December 1962, the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union ordered Ob. 432 (later serialized as the T-64) into production, dooming Kartsev's tank.


title: T-72

text: Kartsev continued to work on the Ob. 167. Ob. 167M incorporated an autoloader. This model too was rejected in May 1964.


title: T-72

text: Problems with the early production run were evident from the start, but a strong lobby formed around Morozov who advocated for Ob. 434 in Moscow, preventing rival developments and ideas from being discussed. Ob. 434 was accepted into Soviet Army service in May 1968 as the T-64A.


title: T-72

text: The T-64's smaller design presented a problem when selecting a suitable engine. The chosen 700 hp 5TDF engine was unreliable, difficult to repair, and had a guaranteed lifespan similar to World War II designs.


title: T-72

text: In 1967, the Uralvagonzavod formed "Section 520", which was to prepare the serial production of the T-64 for 1970. Because of the time-consuming construction of the 5TDF engines, which took about twice as long as the contemporary V-45, the Malyshev Factory in Kharkiv could not provide a sufficient number of 5TDF engines for all Soviet tank factories. The Military-Industrial Commission (VPK) authorized work on two alternative engines for a wartime T-64, a so-called "mobilization model" that could be produced more quickly and at half the cost. Obj. 219 (which became the T-80, with a GTD-1000T gas-turbine) was designed in Leningrad. Ob. 439 with a diesel V-45 engine was designed by Uralvagon KB at Uralvagonzavod in Nizhny Tagil.


title: T-72

text: Kartsev was unsatisfied with the innovations of the T-64, and began instead a more comprehensive project to redesign the tank. Kartsev melded what he believed were the best aspects of the T-64A, Object 167, and an upgunned T-62.


title: T-72

text: During development the tank was code-named "Ural" after the Ural mountain region. Uralvagonzavod produced the first prototype with a T-62 turret, D-81 125-mm gun and V-45 engine in January 1968. Ob. 439 differed so greatly from the T-64 that it was redesignated as "Object 172".


title: T-72

text: Kartsev's defiance angered GABTU, which initially reprimanded him for his insubordination. However, after the tank proved indeed to possess potential as a less costly alternative to the T-64, Kartsev was allowed to continue work on his design. Politically motivated opposition continued to beset the tank throughout its development. Vagonka tank plant manager I.F. Krutyakov sought to subordinate Uralvagonzavod under Josef Kotin. Kartsev skillfully beat back this play for power, embarrassing Krutyakov in the process. Kartsev retired in August 1969, and was succeeded by Venediktov.


title: T-72

text: The team soon found out that the more powerful V-45 engine put a lot of stress on the T-64 hull, so that after some time cracks started to materialize. A more stable solution was sought.


title: T-72

text: Finally, an idea from 1960 was used, when a modification of the T-62 had been discussed: In 1961, two prototypes of "Object 167" had been built by Uralvagonzavod to test a stronger hull and running gear combination for that tank. Under influence from Kharkiv, the idea had been turned down by Moscow. But this construction, with its big, rubbercoated roadwheels now formed the basis for the mobilisation model of the T-64.


title: T-72

text: Additional changes were made to the automatic loading system, which also was taken from an earlier project, originally intended for a T-62 upgrade. The 125 mm ammunition, consisting of a separate projectile and a propellant charge, was now stored horizontally on two levels, not vertically on one level as in the T-64. It was said to be more reliable than the T-64 autoloader. In 1964, two 125-mm guns of the D-81 type had been used to evaluate their installation in to the T-62, so the Ural plant was ready to adopt the 125 mm calibre for the T-64A as well.


title: T-72

text: Venediktov's team later replaced the T-64-style suspension with the Obj. 167's suspension. The tank was trialed in Kubinka in 1968, and Central Asia in 1969. After intensive comparative testing with the T-64A, Object 172 was re-engineered in 1970 to deal with some minor problems. Further trials took place in Transbaikal in 1971.


title: T-72

text: Being only a mobilisation model, serial production of Object 172 was not possible in peacetime. However, by 1971, even Ustinov was growing tired of problems with the T-64. In an unclear political process decree number 326-113 was issued, which allowed the production of Object 172 in the Soviet Union from 1 January 1972, and freed Uralvagonzavod from the T-64A production.


title: T-72

text: An initial production run began in 1972 at Nizhni Tagil. These were trialed in the Soviet Army. A final trial batch was built as "Object 172M" and tested in 1973 and accepted into service as the "T-72" in 1974.


title: T-72

text: Obj. 174 introduced ceramic/steel laminate turret armour. The coincidence rangefinder was replaced with a laser rangefinder. Obj. 174 was designated as the T-74A when it entered production in 1978. Turret armour was greatly improved with Obj. 174M. A more powerful V-84 engine was introduced to offset the increased weight. Obj. 174M entered service in 1985 as the T-72B.


title: T-72

text: At least some technical documentation on the T-72 is known to have been passed to the CIA by the Polish Colonel Ryszard Kukliński between 1971 and 1982.


title: T-72

text: The first series production of T-72 Object 172M began in July at UKBM in Nizhny Tagil. However, due to difficulties in getting the factory organised for the change in production from T-64 to T-72, only 30 completed tanks were delivered in 1973. Troubles continued in 1974 where out of a state production quota of 440 only 220 were officially declared, with the actual number of completed tanks being close to 150. As a result, substantial investment in tooling was undertaken. Only after modernisation, could the factory begin full-scale production of the T-72. Nizhny Tagil produced the tank in various modifications until 1992.


title: T-72

text: The T-72 was the most common tank used by the Warsaw Pact from the 1970s until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. It was also exported to other countries, such as Finland, India, Iran, Iraq, Syria and Yugoslavia, as well as being copied elsewhere, both with and without licenses.


title: T-72

text: Licensed versions of the T-72 were made in Poland and Czechoslovakia, for Warsaw Pact consumers. These tanks had better and more consistent quality of make but with inferior armour, lacking the resin-embedded ceramics layer inside the turret front and glacis plate armour, replaced with all steel. The Polish-made T-72G tanks also had thinner armour compared to Soviet Army standard (410 mm for turret). Before 1990, Soviet-made T-72 export versions were similarly downgraded for non-Warsaw Pact customers (mostly the Arab countries). Many parts and tools are not interchangeable between the Soviet, Polish and Czechoslovakian versions, which caused logistics problems.


title: T-72

text: Yugoslavia developed the T-72 into the more advanced M-84, and sold hundreds of them around the world during the 1980s. The Iraqis called their T-72 copies the "Lion of Babylon" ("Asad Babil"). These Iraqi tanks were assembled from kits sold to them by the Soviet Union as a means of evading the UN-imposed weapons embargo. More modern derivatives include the Polish PT-91 "Twardy". Several countries, including Russia and Ukraine, also offer modernization packages for older T-72s.


title: T-72

text: Various versions of the T-72 have been in production for decades, and the specifications for its armour have changed considerably. Original T-72 tanks had homogeneous cast steel armour incorporating spaced armour technology and were moderately well protected by the standards of the early 1970s. In 1979, the Soviets began building T-72 modification with composite armour similar to the T-64 composite armour, in the front of the turret and the front of the hull. Late in the 1980s, T-72 tanks in Soviet inventory (and many of those elsewhere in the world as well) were fitted with reactive armour tiles.


title: T-72

text: TPD-K1 laser rangefinder system have appeared in T-72 tanks since 1974; earlier examples were equipped with parallax optical rangefinders, which could not be used for distances under . Some export versions of the T-72 lacked the laser rangefinder until 1985 or sometimes only the squadron and platoon commander tanks (version K) received them. After 1985, all newly made T-72s came with reactive armour as standard, the more powerful V-84 engine and an upgraded design main gun, which can fire guided anti-tank missiles from the barrel. With these developments, the T-72 eventually became almost as powerful as the more expensive T-80 tank, but few of these late variants reached the economically ailing Warsaw Pact allies and foreign customers before the Soviet bloc fell apart in 1990.


title: T-72

text: Since 2000, export vehicles have been offered with thermal imaging night-vision gear of French manufacture as well (though it may be more likely that they might simply use the locally manufactured 'Buran-Catherine' system, which incorporates a French thermal imager). Depleted uranium armour-piercing ammunition for the gun has been manufactured in Russia in the form of the BM-32 projectile since around 1978, though it has never been deployed, and is less penetrating than the later tungsten BM-42 and the newer BM-42M.


title: T-72

text: In 2010, Russia started a upgrade using the enormous stocks of T-72B's held in reserve. The rebuild tank is called T72B3 (Ob'yekt 184-M3).


title: T-72

text: In 2018, the 3rd Central Research Institute in Moscow had tested a proof-of-concept demonstration for robotic tank mobility, and was planning to further develop it based on the T-72B3 and other platforms.


title: T-72

text: In 2022, according to intelligence sources, the upgrade of the Russian T-72 fleet has slowed during the war in Ukraine while production of the more modern T-90s and T-14 Armatas has almost stopped because the International sanctions affecting the Russian military industry. However, more tanks of T-72 and T-90 types were ordered in August 2022. A new batch of T-72B3M tanks was reportedly delivered in late 2022.


title: T-72

text: Main models of the T-72, built in the Soviet Union and Russia. Command tanks have "K" added to their designation for "komandirskiy", "command", for example "T-72K" is the command version of the basic T-72. Versions with reactive armour have "V" added, for "vzryvnoy", "explosive".


title: T-72

text: The T-72 design has been used into the following foreign models:T-72M4CZ (Czech Republic), PT-91 Twardy (Poland), M-84 (Yugoslavia), M-84AS1 (Serbia), M-84D (Croatia) and Lion of Babylon (Iraq).


title: T-72

text: In addition, the T-72 hull has been used as the basis for other heavy vehicle designs, including the following:


title: T-72

text: The T-72 shares many design features with other tank designs of Soviet origin. Some of these are viewed as deficiencies in a straight comparison to NATO tanks, but most are a product of the way these tanks were envisioned to be employed, based on the Soviets' practical experiences in World War II.


title: T-72

text: The T-72 is extremely lightweight, at forty-one tonnes, and very small compared to Western main battle tanks. Some of the roads and bridges in former Warsaw Pact countries were designed such that T-72s can travel along in formation, but NATO tanks could not pass at all, or just one-by-one, significantly reducing their mobility. The basic T-72 is relatively underpowered, with a supercharged version of the basic V12 diesel engine originally designed for the World War II-era T-34. The wide tracks run on large-diameter road wheels, which allows for easy identification of the T-72 and descendants (the T-64 family has relatively small road wheels).


title: T-72

text: The T-72 is designed to cross rivers up to deep submerged using a small diameter snorkel assembled on-site. The crew is individually supplied with simple rebreather chest-pack apparatuses for emergency situations. If the engine stops underwater, it must be restarted within six seconds, or the T-72's engine compartment becomes flooded due to pressure loss. The snorkeling procedure is considered dangerous, but is important for maintaining operational mobility.


title: T-72

text: The T-72 has a nuclear, biological, and chemical (NBC) protection system. The inside of both hull and turret is lined with a synthetic fabric made of boron compound, meant to reduce the penetrating radiation from neutron bomb explosions. The crew is supplied clean air via an air filter system. A slight over-pressure prevents entry of contamination via bearings and joints. Use of an autoloader for the main gun allows for more efficient forced smoke removal compared to traditional manually loaded ("pig-loader") tank guns, so NBC isolation of the fighting compartment can, in theory, be maintained indefinitely.


title: T-72

text: Like all Soviet-legacy tanks, the T-72's design has traded off interior space in return for a very small silhouette and efficient use of armour, to the point of replacing the fourth crewman with a mechanical loader. The basic T-72 design has extremely small periscope viewports, even by the constrained standards of battle tanks and the driver's field of vision is significantly reduced when his hatch is closed. The steering system is a traditional dual-tiller layout instead of the easier-to-use steering wheel or steering yoke common in modern Western tanks. This set-up requires the near-constant use of both hands, which complicates employment of the seven speed manual transmission.


title: T-72

text: There is a widespread Cold War-era myth that T-72 and all other Soviet/Russian tanks are extremely cramped to the point that the small interior demands specifically short men for the crew, with the maximum height set at in the Soviet Army. According to official standards of the Russian armed forces, however, the optimal height is , which was average at the time the tank was designed.


title: T-72

text: Armour protection of the T-72 was strengthened with each succeeding generation. The original T-72 "Ural" Object 172M's (from 1973) turret is made from conventional cast high hardness steel (HHS) armour with no laminate inserts. It is believed that the maximum thickness is and the nose is . The glacis of the new laminated armour is thick, comprising HHS, double layer of laminate and RHA steel, which when inclined gives about thickness along the line of sight. In 1977 the armour of the T-72 Object 172M was slightly changed. The turret now featured insert filled with ceramic sand bars "kwartz" rods and the glacis plate composition was changed. It was now made up of HHA steel, glass Tekstolit laminate and RHA steel. This version was often known in Soviet circles as T-72 "Ural-1". The next armour update was introduced by the T-72A (Object 176), which was designed in 1976 and replaced the original on the production lines during 1979–1985. T-72 Object 1976 is also known as T-72A. With the introduction of the T-72B (Object 184) in 1985, the composite armour was again changed. According to retired major, James M. Warford, variants developed after the T-72 base model and T-72M/T-72G MBT, featured a cast steel turret that included a cavity filled with quartz or sand in a form similar to US "fused-silica" armour. The T-72 Model 1978 (Obiekt 172M sb-4), which entered production in 1977, featured a new turret with special armour composed of ceramic rods.


title: T-72

text: The T-72A featured a new turret with thicker, nearly vertical, frontal armour. Due to its appearance, it was unofficially nicknamed "Dolly Parton" armour by the US Army. This used the new ceramic-rod turret filler, incorporated improved glacis laminate armour, and mounted new anti-shaped-charge sideskirts.


title: T-72

text: The T-72M was identical to the base T-72 Ural model in terms of protection, retaining the monolithic steel turret. The modernized T-72M1 was closer to the T-72A in terms of protection. It featured an additional of high hardness steel appliqué armour on the glacis plate, which produced an increase of in line of sight thickness. It was also the first export variant with composite armour in the turret, containing ceramic rods sometimes called "sandbar armour". The turret armour composition was essentially identical to the T-72 "Ural-1" whereas Soviet-only T-72As had slightly increased turret protection.


title: T-72

text: Several T-72 models featured explosive reactive armour (ERA), which increased protection primarily against high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) type weapons. Certain late-model T-72 tanks featured Kontakt-5 ERA, a form of "universal" ERA partly effective against kinetic penetrators. It was added to the T-72 as a response to testing conducted by the Soviet Union against captured Israeli Magach-4 tanks which found that the glacis of the T-72 could be penetrated by the 105mm M111 APDSFS "Hetz" ammunition.


title: T-72

text: Late model T-72s, such as the T-72B, featured improved turret armour, visibly bulging the turret front—nicknamed "super-Dolly Parton" armour by Western intelligence. The turret armour of the T-72B was the thickest and most effective of all Soviet tank armour; it was even thicker than the frontal armour of the T-80B. The T-72B used a new "reflecting-plate armour" ("bronya s otrazhayushchimi listami"), in which the frontal cavity of the cast turret was filled with a laminate of alternating steel and non-metallic (rubber) layers. The glacis was also fitted with of appliqué armour. The late production versions of the T-72B/B1 and T-72A variants also featured an anti-radiation layer on the hull roof.


title: T-72

text: Early model T-72s did not feature side skirts; instead, the original base model featured gill or flipper-type armour panels on either side of the forward part of the hull. When the T-72A was introduced in 1979, it was the first model to feature the plastic side skirts covering the upper part of the suspension, with separate panels protecting the side of the fuel and stowage panniers.


title: T-72

text: After the collapse of the USSR, US and German analysts had a chance to examine Soviet-made T-72 tanks equipped with Kontakt-5 ERA, and they proved impenetrable to most Cold War US and German tank projectiles and anti-tank weapons. A U.S. Army spokesperson claimed at the show, "the myth of Soviet inferiority in this sector of arms production that has been perpetuated by the failure of downgraded T-72 export tanks in the Gulf Wars has, finally, been laid to rest. The results of these tests show that if a NATO/Warsaw Pact confrontation had erupted in Europe, the Soviets would have had parity (or perhaps even superiority) in armour". KE-effective ERA, such as Kontakt-5, drove the development of M829A3 ammunition.


title: T-72

text: Late 1980s, Soviet developed Object 187 (Объект 187, or T-72BI), it was a parallel project to Object 188 (the T-90 tank). It was based on the T-72B, with a heavily modified turret. The 'Object 187' used composite armour for the turret ("Super Dolly Parton" composite armour) and the hull front, and RHA for the rest of the tank. It possibly consisted of special materials including ceramic or high density uranium alloys. Maximum physical thickness of the passive armour (not counting the reactive armour – ERA) was up to 950 mm RHA. With Kontakt-5 ERA, T-72BI's frontal armour was immune to the NATO's 120 mm L/44 tank gun. However, after the Soviet collapse, the tank was not accepted.


title: T-72

text: In 2021, Russian Army T-72B3s were seen fitted with raised mesh screens above their turrets. The screens appeared to act as a type of slat armour attempting to protect the tanks from top attack weapons such as the FGM-148 Javelin ATGM and small air-to-ground munitions fired from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine the cages proved ineffective at defending the tanks and were removed.


title: T-72

text: The following table shows the estimated protection level of different T-72 models in rolled homogeneous armour equivalency, i.e., the composite armour of the turret of a T-72B offers as much protection against an armour-piercing fin-stabilized discarding sabot (APFSDS) round as a thick armour steel layer.


title: T-72

text: Possible easy replacement of Kontakt 5 (or 1) with Relikt. Relikt defends against tandem-charge warheads and reduces penetration of APFSDS rounds by over 50 percent. "Calculation" T-72B + Relikt vs APFSDS, on turret 1,000–1,050 mm, on hull 950–1,000 mm. For T-90MS Relikt is a basic set, for the T-90S basic set – Kontakt 5.


title: T-72

text: The T-72 is equipped with the 2A46 series main gun, a significantly larger (20-mm larger) calibre than the standard gun found in contemporary Western MBTs, and still slightly larger than the 120 mm/L44 found in many modern Western MBTs. As is typical of Soviet tanks, the gun can fire anti-tank guided missiles, and standard main gun ammunition, including HEAT and APFSDS rounds.


title: T-72

text: The original T-72 Object 172M (1973) used 2A26M2 model gun first mounted on T-64. The barrel had a length of 6350mm or 50.8 calibers and had maximum rated chamber pressure of 450 MPa. The cannon had an electroplated chrome lining but lacked a thermal sleeve. The cannon was capable of firing 3VBM-3 round with 3BM-9 steel projectile sabot and 3VBM-6 round with 3BM-12 Tungsten sabot APFSDS projectile. Allowing respectively and penetration of RHA steel at 2000m at 0 degree angle. In addition to APFSDS rounds T-72 Object 172M could also fire 3VBK-7 round incorporating 3BK-12 HEAT warhead and 3VBK-10 round incorporating 3BK-14 HEAT warhead. HEAT rounds allowed respectively and penetration of RHA steel at 0 degree angle. The High Explosive rounds provided included 3WOF-22 with 3OF-19 warhead or 3WOF-36 with the 3OF-26 warhead. For all rounds, the Zh40 propellant was used. Complementing the original gun setup was 2E28M "Siren" two-plane electrohydraulic stabilizer allowing automatic stabilization with speeds from 0.05 to 6 degrees per second.


title: T-72

text: Even as the T-72 Object 172M (1973) was entering production new ammunition was developed to offset armour developments in the West. Beginning in 1972, two new APFSDS rounds were introduced, the 3VBM-7 round with 3BM-15 Tungsten sabot projectile and the "cheaper" 3VBM-8 round with 3BM-17 sabot but without the tungsten carbide plug. These allowed penetration of respectively and RHA steel at 2000m at 0 degree angle. At the same time, a universal Zh52 propellant charge was introduced. The 3VBM-7 was the most common APFSDS round found in T-72 Object 172M tanks during the 70s.


title: T-72

text: The stated barrel life expectancy of the 2A26M2 model gun was 600 rounds of HE/HEAT equivalent to 600 EFC (Effective Full Charge) or 150 rounds of APFSDS.


title: T-72

text: The main gun of the T-72 has a mean error of at a range of , considered substandard today. Its maximum firing distance is , due to limited positive elevation. The limit of aimed fire is (with the gun-launched anti-tank guided missile, which is rarely used outside of former Soviet states). The T-72's main gun is fitted with an integral pressure reserve drum, which assists in rapid smoke evacuation from the bore after firing. The 125 millimeter gun barrel is certified strong enough to ram the tank through forty centimeters of iron-reinforced brick wall, though doing so will negatively affect the gun's accuracy when subsequently fired. Rumours in NATO armies of the late Cold War claimed that the tremendous recoil of the huge 125 mm gun could damage the fully mechanical transmission of the T-72. The tank commander reputedly had to order firing by repeating his command, when the T-72 is on the move: "Fire! Fire!" The first shout supposedly allowed the driver to disengage the clutch to prevent wrecking the transmission when the gunner fired the cannon on the second order. In reality, this still-common tactic substantially improves the tank's firing accuracy and has nothing to do with recoil or mechanical damage to anything. This might have to do with the lower quality (compared to Western tanks) of the T-72's stabilizers.


title: T-72

text: The vast majority of T-72s do not have FLIR thermal imaging sights, though all T-72s (even those exported to the Third World) possess the characteristic (and inferior) 'Luna' Infrared illuminator. Thermal imaging sights are extremely expensive, and the new Russian FLIR system, the 'Buran-Catherine Thermal Imaging Suite' was introduced only recently on the T-80UM tank. Most T-72s found outside the former Soviet Union do not have laser rangefinders.


title: T-72

text: Like the earlier domestic-use-only T-64, the T-72 is equipped with an automatic loading system, eliminating the need for a dedicated crewmember, decreasing the size and weight of the tank.


title: T-72

text: However, the autoloader is of a noticeably different design. Both the T-64 and T-72 carry their two-section 125 mm ammunition (shell and full propellant charge, or missile and reduced propellant charge) in separate loading trays positioned on top of each other; but firstly, in T-64, 28 of these were arranged vertically as a ring under the turret ring proper, and were rotated to put the correct tray into position under the hoist system in the turret rear. This had the disadvantage of cutting the turret off from the rest of the tank, most notably, the driver. Accessing the hull required partial removal of the trays. The T-72 uses a design that has lower width requirements and does not isolate the turret compartment: the trays are arranged in a circle at the very bottom of the fighting compartment; the trade-off is the reduction of the number of trays to 22. The second difference is that in the T-64 the trays were hinged together and were flipped open as they were brought into position, allowing both the shell/missile and propellant charge to be rammed into the breech in one motion; in the T-72 the tray is brought to the breech as-is, with the shell in the lower slot and the charge in the upper one, and the mechanical rammer sequentially loads each of them, resulting in a longer reloading cycle.


title: T-72

text: The autoloader has a minimum cycle of 6.5 seconds (ATGM 8 seconds) and a maximum cycle of 15 seconds for reload, in later versions the sequence mode allows to reload in less than 5 seconds, allowing to reach 3 shots in 13 seconds.


title: T-72

text: The autoloader system also includes an automated casing removal mechanism that ejects the propellant case through an opening port in the back of the turret during the following reload cycle.


title: T-72

text: The autoloader disconnects the gun from the vertical stabilizer and cranks it up three degrees above the horizontal in order to depress the breech end of the gun and line it up with the loading tray and rammer. While loading, the gunner can still aim because he has a vertically independent sight. With a laser rangefinder and ballistic computer, final aiming takes at least another three to five seconds, but it is pipelined into the last steps of auto-loading and proceeds concurrently.


title: T-72

text: In addition to the 22 auto-loaded rounds, the T-72 carries 17 rounds conventionally in the hull, which can be loaded into the emptied autoloader trays or directly into the gun.


title: T-72

text: The T-72B3 modernization replaced the old autoloader with a new one to fit longer projectiles such as 3BM59 and 3BM60. Previous variants are limited and may only carry older APFSDS rounds that can't exceed a certain length, therefore allowing less performance from anti-tank rounds.


title: T-72

text: The way that the unused rounds are stored in the autoloader system has been exposed as a flaw, as observers have noted that penetrating hits can easily set off a chain reaction that detonates all of the ammunition. The result is the turret is blown off resulting in a so-called "jack-in-the-box" explosion. This vulnerability was first observed during the Gulf War.


title: T-72

text: The T-72 was never used in the Afghanistan War. The 40th Soviet Army that was deployed there had mainly T-55, and T-62 tanks.


title: T-72

text: The Russian Federation had over 10,000 T-72 tanks in use, including around 2,000 in active service and 8,000 in reserve (mostly T-72Bs). The T-72 has been used by the Russian Army in the fighting during the First and Second Chechen Wars, the Russo-Georgian War, and the Russo-Ukrainian War. The T-72 has been used by over 40 countries worldwide.


title: T-72

text: In the 1982 Lebanon War, Syrian T-72s are believed to have engaged Israeli tanks (M60A1, Magach or probably Merkava tanks) in the south of Lebanon. It is assumed that Syrian T-72 never met the Merkava in battle. On 9 June 1982, the Syrian General HQ ordered a brigade of the 1st Armoured Division, recently equipped with T-72 tanks, to move straight ahead, cross the border, and hit the right flank of the Israeli units advancing along the eastern side of Beka'a valley. The ensuing battle staved off further Israeli advance and 10 IDF main battle tanks were destroyed. After the war, Syrian president Hafez Al-Assad called it "the best tank in the world".


title: T-72

text: The T-72 has been in extensive use in the Syrian Civil War by the Syrian Arab Army since 2011. Quite a few captured units have been used by anti-government forces, including the rebel Free Syrian Army, and jihadist groups such as the Islamic Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.


title: T-72

text: Initially, the insurgent forces used IEDs and RPG-7 ambush tactics against the government armoured forces. Later, the rebels obtained modern Russian RPGs and Yugoslav M79 Osas, which were used successfully against T-72s. Starting in 2012, the capture from Syrian stocks and later direct delivery by external sponsors of modern anti-tank guided missiles, including Chinese-made HJ-8, Soviet-made 9K111 Fagot, 9M113 Konkurs, and 9K115 Metis, and U.S.-made BGM-71 TOW missile enabled the opposition forces to engage and destroy any government armoured vehicle types, T-72 included, from safer distances. As of March 2020, at least 837 T-72 tanks operated by the Syrian Armed forces were destroyed according to visual recordings.


title: T-72

text: At the beginning of the Iran–Iraq War, an Iraqi tank battalion, equipped with T-72s, in a battle near the town of Qasr-e Shirin completely defeated an Iranian tank battalion which consisted of Chieftain tanks, without incurring losses. Iranian M47 Patton, M48 Patton, and M60 tanks suffered losses during clashes with Iraqi T-72s. In the opening stages of the war, Iraqi tank battalions equipped with T-72s neutralised Iranian armour in multiple engagements reportedly suffered no losses at all. At least one engagement pitting T-62 and T-72 units against Iranian armour saw the Iranians lose over 100 tanks, with Iraqi losses limited to around a dozen, most of them T-62s.


title: T-72

text: Iraqi T-72Ms and T-72M1s had success in the battle for Basra and the last stages of the war. 105mm M68 tank guns and TOW missiles proved ineffective against the frontal armour of Iraqi T-72s. Sixty T-72 tanks were lost during the eight years of war. Ra'ad Al-Hamdani, an Iraqi general in the Iraqi Republican Guard, stating "The 16th Iranian Armoured Division, which was equipped with Chieftain tanks, lost a battle against the 10th Iraqi Armoured Brigade with T-72 tanks. It is hard for an armoured brigade to destroy a division in 12 hours but it happened; it was a disaster for the Iranians". Out of the 894 Chieftain tanks that had started the war only 200 were left by the war's end. According to Iranians and Iraqis, the T-72 was the most feared tank of the Iran–Iraq War.


title: T-72

text: During the invasion of Kuwait Iraq used 690 tanks, mainly T-55s, T-62s and T-72s. Kuwait had 281 tanks, including 6 T-72s, 165 Chieftains, 70 Vickers and 40 Centurions. On the morning of 2 August, near the Mutla Pass, a tank battle took place between the Vickers tanks of the 6th Kuwaiti Mechanized Brigade and the T-72s of the Republican Guard's 17th Armoured Brigade, 1st Hammurabi Armoured Division. Kuwaiti tanks were able to knock out one T-72 during the ambush, but were defeated in response with the commander of the 6th brigade captured. Only 20 surviving Vickers tanks were able to retreat to Saudi Arabia.


title: T-72

text: The Iraqi-assembled T-72 version Lion of Babylon engaged coalition forces in both Iraq wars. The Battle of 73 Easting took place during a sandstorm in the Iraqi desert. U.S. M1A1s and Bradley Fighting Vehicles came up against Iraqi Republican Guard T-72Ms and BMPs and inflicted 37 losses on the Iraqi armoured forces, while losing a single Bradley to enemy fire. The primary attack was conducted by 2ACR's three squadrons of about 400 soldiers, along with the 1st Infantry Division's two leading brigades, who attacked and destroyed the Iraqi 18th Mechanized Brigade and 37th Armoured Brigade of the Tawakalna Division, each consisting of between 2,500 and 3,000 personnel. On 26 February 1991, the Iraqis used dug-in T-72 tanks to stop the advance of an U.S. mechanized infantry company supported by two M1 Abrams tanks in southern Iraq during the Battle of Phase Line Bullet. The Iraqi T-72Ms used 3BM9 shells (removed from Soviet service in 1973), with a penetration of 245 mm at a distance of up to . M60A1s of the 1st Marine Division Task Force Ripper led the drive to the Kuwait International Airport on 27 February 1991. Task Force Ripper's M60A1 tanks destroyed about 100 Iraqi tanks and armored personnel carriers, including T-72 tanks. The total number of T-72s lost during Operation Desert Storm was about 150 (unrepairable or captured).


title: T-72

text: In January 2009, it was reported that the Iraqi government was negotiating a deal to purchase up to 2,000 T-72 tanks. The T-72s were to be refurbished and modernized.


title: T-72

text: During the First Chechen War (December 1994 to September 1996) fought between the Russian Federation and the self-proclaimed Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, led by Dzhokhar Dudayev, the Russian Federation deployed both T-72 and T-80 tanks. Russian AFV losses during the first three months fighting amounted to 62 tank (T-72/T-80) losses (44 T-72s of 141, 18 T-80s of 71 and 0 PT-76s of 9). Analysis of damage to non repairable vehicles showed that no T-72 were lost to frontal penetration of the hull from man portable anti tank weapons.


title: T-72

text: Analysis of the causes of these losses indicated the majority were caused by Chechen four-man anti-armour hunter-killer teams consisting of a gunner armed with a Russian RPG-7 or RPG-18 shoulder-fired antitank rocket launcher, and a machine gunner and a sniper, with five or six such teams simultaneously attacking a single armored vehicle. The majority of losses recorded occurred from three to six kill shot hits to the sides, top and rear of a vehicle.


title: T-72

text: Highlighted were serious tactical deployment failures, once again demonstrating doctrine and tactics being a primary factor in determining a tank's worth. Following the serious losses to the Russian Federation during their first assault upon Grozny, armoured tactics were revised. Russian armored vehicle losses dropped off with their change in tactics to have Russian infantry move in front, with armored combat vehicles in support of the infantry. In particular use of AAA armoured vehicles, these vehicles can elevate their main armament to higher angles than the T-72 .


title: T-72

text: The Russian army captured seven of Dudayev's T-72s and used them in combat. During the First Chechen War, at least two tank duels took place. In the first, Dudayev's T-72A knocked out one T-62M belonging to pro-Russian Chechens. In the second, one of Dudayev's T-72As was destroyed by a Russian T-72B. Three Russian T-72s are recorded as destroyed, at the hands of Chechen separatists, including one tank during the Second Chechen War, during the period 1997 to 2003.


title: T-72

text: During the war in South Ossetia in 2008 both sides deployed great numbers of T-72 tanks. At the time of the conflict, the Georgian military fielded 191 T-72 tanks of which 120 were modified to T-72Sim1s. The Georgian army deployed a total of 75 of its T-72 tanks into South Ossetia. The Georgian military lost 30 T-72's, ten in combat during the fighting around Tskhinvali, and another 20 destroyed by Russian paratroopers after their capture.


title: T-72

text: On 26 August 2014, the International Institute for Strategic Studies claimed that it had identified a mixed Russian column composed of at least 3 T-72Bs and a lone T-72B3 in the War in Donbas. The significance of this sighting was that Russia attempted to maintain plausible deniability over the issue of supplying tanks and other arms to the separatists. Russia continuously claimed that any tanks operated by the separatists must have been captured from Ukraine's own army. The T-72B3 is in service with the Russian Army in large numbers. This modernized T-72 is not known to have been exported to nor operated by any other country.


title: T-72

text: In an interview with Dorzhi Batomunkuev in March 2015, it was revealed that he had operated a T-72B as part of a 32 tank Russian army unit when fighting for Debaltseve in Ukraine in February 2015. His tank was destroyed and he suffered severe burns.


title: T-72

text: Before the conflict Ukraine had 600 T-72s in storage. However, encountering a deficiency of serviceable armoured vehicles, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence began returning some of the T-72s to service.


title: T-72

text: Russia's most numerous tanks are the T-72B3 (mod. 2011 and 2016) and the older T-72B (mod. 1985 and 1989). In the buildup to the invasion, Russian forces applied improvised steel grilles to the top of the turret, known as "cope cages" by some commentators (including British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace). Military analysts have speculated that such grilles were added in an attempt to counter the usage of top-attack weapons, such as the US made FGM-148 Javelin and British-Swedish NLAW, by Ukrainian forces. These implementations add weight to the tank, increase its visual profile, and make it more difficult for the crew to escape from the tank. Analysts have also speculated that they may be potentially used as a countermeasure against RPG-7s fired from above during urban combat, loitering munitions, or against drone attacks, as a response to lessons learned from the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war. The lack of uniformity between the makeshift cage variants made from different meshes and iron fences suggest that they are largely improvised by the tank crews, and are not standard issue. In May 2022, some Russian tankers said they eventually removed the cages, as they obstructed the use of machine guns and radios, and prevented evacuation if the tank caught fire.


title: T-72

text: Before the invasion, Ukraine operated small numbers of T-72s which were left from the Soviet Union but were partly modernized. These mainly included T-72As and T-72AVs, as well as modernized T-72AMTs (mod. 2017). On 3 April, an image of a rare T-72 "Ural" (1973) equipped with Kontakt-1 ERA having been damaged appeared. As of April 2022, an unspecified number of Czech T-72M1s had been provided to Ukraine. Poland also donated over 200 T-72M1/M1R tanks to Ukraine.


title: T-72

text: As of 21 November 2022, the open-source intelligence site, Oryx has visually confirmed the loss of 863 Russian T-72s, whether destroyed, damaged, abandoned or captured. (35 T-72A, 8 T-72AV, 207 T-72B, 71 T-72B Obr. 1989, 22 T-72BA, 235 T-72B3, 3 T-72B3 Obr. 2014, 188 T-72B3 Obr. 2016 and 94 Unknown T-72), and 83 Ukrainian T-72s (3 T-72 Ural, 35 T-72M1, 9 T-72AV, 23 T-72B and 13 T-72AMT).


title: T-72

text: In September 2009, it was announced that Venezuela was planning to purchase 92 Russian T-72B1V tanks. The first T-72s destined for Venezuela arrived at the port of Puerto Cabello on 25 May 2011. In June 2012, Russia and Venezuela agreed on a deal for 100 more T-72B1Vs.


title: T-72

text: In 2012 Xu Bin-shi, a high ranking Chinese military engineer, revealed during an interview that China first obtained a T-72 from Romania in the 1980s, in exchange for plasma spray technology.


title: T-72

text: In June 2013, Azerbaijan bought from Russia a $1 billion package of tanks, artillery, and rocket launchers starting on 18 June. Although the T-72 tanks Azerbaijan had were outdated, they were modified by Israel's Elbit Systems and Rafael. Together the two tweaked T-72A and T-72M1 tanks with improved sights, thermal imaging cameras, wind sensors, and NATO communication systems to name a few. Even with these upgrades, military experts still consider the tanks "do not meet modern requirements".


title: Jonathan Groff

text: Jonathan Drew Groff (born March 26, 1985) is an American actor. He began his career on Broadway, rising to prominence for his portrayal of Melchior Gabor in the original production of "Spring Awakening" (2006-2008), for which he was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical, becoming one of the youngest nominees for the award, at age 21. He returned to Broadway to portray King George III in the original production of "Hamilton" (2015), for which he earned a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical. For the original cast album of "Hamilton", he, along with the other singers on the recording, won the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album.


title: Jonathan Groff

text: Branching out into film and television roles, Groff made his film debut in Ang Lee's "Taking Woodstock" (2009), and became a recurring guest star in the Fox musical-comedy series "Glee" (2009–2015) as Jesse St. James. He voiced the roles of Kristoff and Sven in Disney's "Frozen" franchise, including "Frozen" (2013) and "Frozen II" (2019), two of the highest-grossing films of all time, as well as the short films "Frozen Fever" (2015) and "Olaf's Frozen Adventure" (2017). Groff starred as Patrick Murray in the HBO comedy-drama series "Looking" (2014–2015), the network's first TV series centering around the lives of gay men, as well as its subsequent television film, "" (2016), and portrayed FBI Special Agent Holden Ford in the Netflix period crime drama "Mindhunter" (2017–2019), produced by David Fincher, for which he won a Satellite Award. In 2021, he received a nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Actor in a Supporting Role in a Limited Series or Movie for his performance in the Disney+ live stage recording of "Hamilton".


title: Jonathan Groff

text: Groff starred in the fourth installment of the "Matrix" franchise—"The Matrix Resurrections" (2021)—as Smith, replacing Hugo Weaving from the original trilogy. In 2022, he executive produced the HBO documentary film "Spring Awakening: Those You've Known", which saw the 15 year reunion of the original cast of the musical, and voiced the lead role of Ollie in the Netflix series "Lost Ollie". Upcoming projects include the New York Theatre Workshop revival of Stephen Sondheim's "Merrily We Roll Along" and M. Night Shyamalan's apocalyptic horror film "Knock at the Cabin" (2023).


title: Jonathan Groff

text: Jonathan Drew Groff was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to Julie (née Witmer), a physical education teacher, and Jim Groff, a harness horse trainer. He has one older brother, David, who is President and COO of WebstaurantStore. He is a first cousin of singer James Wolpert, a semi-finalist on the fifth season of "The Voice". Groff is of German descent. His father is Mennonite, and his paternal grandfather, J. Wade Groff, was a Mennonite minister. Groff's mother is Methodist, and Groff was raised in the Methodist faith. He grew up among Amish communities in Ronks, Pennsylvania, spending his teenage years driving around his Amish neighbors, who were not allowed to use electricity or drive cars.


title: Jonathan Groff

text: Groff's roots in theater and acting began at an early age. When he was three years old, Groff fell in love with Julie Andrews' performance as Mary Poppins, and growing up, he and his brother put on childhood home productions, such as a performance of "The Wizard of Oz" in his father's barn, where he played Dorothy. Groff credits Sutton Foster as one of his greatest influences and idols, and as a young aspiring actor, he would wait at the stage door after her performances to get her autograph. Groff joined his middle school and high school drama departments, and it was there that he became inspired to start a career in theater.


title: Jonathan Groff

text: In his adolescence, Groff took part in many community productions in his hometown of Lancaster. At seventeen years old, he directed and starred in "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown" at a high school theatre festival at the Fulton Opera House, for which he won a community award. He also performed in "The Sound of Music", "Ragtime", "Cyrano", "Evita", "My Fair Lady", "Peter Pan", "The Pirates of Penzance", and "Rags" at the Fulton Opera House, as well as starring as Edgar in "" and Ugly in "Honk!" at The Ephrata Performing Arts Center.


title: Jonathan Groff

text: Groff graduated from Conestoga Valley High School in 2003 and intended to attend Carnegie Mellon University, but he deferred his admission for a year when he was cast as Rolf in a Non-Equity national tour of "The Sound of Music". After the tour, Groff decided to move to New York City instead of attending college and begin his career.


title: Jonathan Groff

text: Groff started out waiting tables at the Chelsea Grill in New York City before earning his Actors' Equity Association card in 2005, with the musical "Fame" at the North Shore Music Theatre, where he played Nick Piazza. That same year, he made his Broadway debut as an understudy for the lead role (played by Christopher Hanke), swing, and dance captain for the musical "In My Life" by Joseph Brooks, opening on October 20 and closing on December 11, 2005, after 61 performances. The musical was panned by critics, with a review from "Broadway.com" calling the production "undoubtedly the most bizarre, misguided Broadway musical of the millennium".


title: Jonathan Groff

text: His breakout performance occurred in 2006, when Groff originated the lead role of Melchior Gabor in the Broadway production of the rock musical "Spring Awakening". The musical tells the story of repressed adolescents in late nineteenth century Germany discovering their sexuality, adapted from Frank Wedekind's original 1891 play by Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater and directed by Michael Mayer. Groff was first cast in a workshop of "Spring Awakening" at Baruch College with Lea Michele, John Gallagher Jr., and the rest of the original cast, and the production then moved to the Atlantic Theater Company for its original off-Broadway run from May 19 through August 5, 2006, before transferring to Broadway. During the Broadway production at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre, Groff played the role from its debut on December 10, 2006, through May 18, 2008, when he departed the production with co-star and best friend Lea Michele. The musical achieved great critical acclaim, garnering eleven nominations and winning eight awards, including Best Musical, at the 61st Tony Awards. The musical was also awarded the Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album, which the Grammys did not award to vocalists at that time. Charles Isherwood of "The New York Times" called the show a "brave new musical, haunting and electrifying by turns" and praised Groff's "ardency and thoughtfulness". "Variety" wrote that the performances of "Michele, Groff and Gallagher dominate the young ensemble". Groff was nominated for a Drama Desk Award, a Drama League Award, and a Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical for his performance. He received the Theatre World Award for Outstanding Debut Performance.


title: Jonathan Groff

text: In 2007, Groff played the recurring role of Henry Mackler for eleven episodes on the ABC soap opera "One Life to Live". His character's storyline about a school shooting was cut due to the Virginia Tech shooting in April 2007. In November 2007, Groff was cast in the FX series Pretty/Handsome, directed and written by Ryan Murphy, and filmed a pilot, but the series was not picked up.


title: Jonathan Groff

text: From July 22 through August 31, 2008, Groff played the lead role of Claude in the Shakespeare in the Park production of "Hair", a rock musical about hippie counterculture during the Vietnam War that was directed by Diane Paulus. Theater critic Ben Brantley of "The New York Times" wrote in his review of "Hair" that "Mr. Groff, who was memorably tormented by young lust in the musical "Spring Awakening", is even more affecting here, his open face a shifting map of doubt and affirmation." Groff decided to turn down the opportunity to reprise his role in the Broadway production, choosing instead to make his film debut. In 2009, he appeared as Michael Lang in Ang Lee's comedy-drama film "Taking Woodstock", about the 1969 Woodstock Festival. While critics found the film "likable" but "underwhelming", Groff's performance was praised for its "crafty, angelic fervor" by "Rolling Stone".


title: Jonathan Groff

text: From November 14 to December 21, 2008, Groff appeared as Billy Noone, a closeted gay soldier fighting in Iraq, in the off-Broadway production of "Prayer for My Enemy", a play written by Craig Lucas. The production was directed by Bartlett Sher and performed at Playwrights Horizons. Ben Brantley wrote in "The New York Times" that the play is "muddle-headed" and "disconnected", but Groff "exudes the charismatic aura of distressed youth". From April 10 to May 17, 2009, Groff appeared as Gray Korankyi and Walter Riemann in the off-Broadway production of another Craig Lucas play, "The Singing Forest", alongside Olympia Dukakis at the Public Theater. The play, directed by Mark Wing-Davey, was described by critics as "convoluted" in plot but with strong performances, praising Groff for his "natural emotional transparency [that] helps add layers to Gray". For both performances, Groff received an Obie Award.


title: Jonathan Groff

text: Groff starred as Dionysus in the play "The Bacchae" opposite Anthony Mackie from August 11 to 30, 2009; it was directed by JoAnne Akalaitis and produced as a part of the Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park. "The Hollywood Reporter" wrote that "Groff is surprisingly effective as the Stranger, Dionysus' human guise", but "in the moments when he must be the immortal god and register his full wrath, however, Groff is less successful despite an earnest effort."


title: Jonathan Groff

text: Starting in 2010, Groff rose to greater prominence as a recurring guest star in the Fox musical comedy-drama "Glee" as Jesse St. James, lead performer in rival glee club Vocal Adrenaline and love interest to Rachel Berry, played by Lea Michele. He appeared in a total of fifteen episodes over the first, second, third, and sixth seasons of the series. Groff was featured in four of "Glee"'s soundtrack albums and made a special appearance in the concert tour Glee Live! In Concert! with Michele at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Los Angeles and at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City.