Leprosy

When I was a kid I briefly lived with another kid who had Hansen's disease (leprosy). He had some skin discolorations and regular medical treatments but I otherwise would never have noticed.

Hell I'd never have known at all if it weren't for a conversation we had one day. He seemed to treat it as the world's biggest secret and as many kids that meant one thing to me: pry.

"What do you have? Leprosy or something?" His shocked face told me I was right. I was freaked out, remember I knew nothing more about leprosy than what one might learn from Ben Hur, but I managed to play it off and pretend it was no big deal.

I must have done a good enough job because he opened up about it and began to explain it to me. He said "it's called Hansen's disease not leprosy" and that he didn't like to talk about it because of the stigma it has.

Anywho, this was in Brazil and I later learned that Brazil had the most cases of the disease outside of India and began to more closely follow the efforts to eradicate it.

No, but a friend of my father's wrote the book, Damien the Leper, about Father Damien who helped take care of people in a leper colony on the island of Molokai, dying of it himself if I remember. That was John Farrow, Mia's father and husband of Maureen O'Sullivan (Jane of the Tarzan thing, but an actress otherwise too.) Farrow was a director and naval commander (I think that was the rank, forget). Anyway, I read the book when I was in my early teens and it made a big impression on me at the time. Am pissed at myself for giving it away in one of my later moves.

I think there used to be a famous leper hospital/colony in Louisiana - also forget, it's been a long time since I read about all that. I even forget the treatment aspects; seem to remember fear of lepers was a big thing.

Yes, now that you say that, Robert, I remember the Hansen's Disease term.

Very rare in USA.: approx 1 in 2,518,518 or 0.00% or 108 people in USA

The bacterium causing leprosy is in the same genus ( Mycobacterium) as the bacterium that causes TB.

My sister lived on Molokai and visited that colony which is how I knew that leprosy isn't contagous in the way most people believe.

Robert, that stigma is exactly what I was thinking about when I asked what it must be like to live with leprosy. Even though I know better, I confess to being taken aback when I saw him. I started wondering what people thought when they heard the word leprosy and what their initial reaction might be.

Is there any other affliction that carries such a stigma?

Isn't TB on the rise, Miller?

Molokai Island, how cool! I did extensive research on some guy who lived and worked there and then came back to Salem, MA, was shunned and died in a pauper house for a person who was writing abook on Molokai colony (don't remember neither the author nor the guy...). I made it into acknowledgements even :-D

But, could the guy have had AIDS? That might affect skin as well, no?

Yeah, I'm curious about what he actually looked like...

There are various disabilities that included self-harming components -- one of the kids at the Deaf institute I worked at had gradually clawed off much of his nose... oof.

Years ago, I had read a book called, "Miracle at Carville" . There was a hospital that treated patients who suffered from leprosy (Hansen's Disease). Apparently, by law, these people were forced to live in isolation at the leprosarium, which was in Louisiana.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE5DB1E39F934A15750C0A96F948260

http://www.hrsa.gov/hansens/museum/tour-carville.htm

Very antibiotic resistant strains of TB are on the rise in a big way....coming into my country a lot with refugees....but establishing itself in countries like ours amongst the poor....big problem in homeles people in the US, apparently.

People like me are being advised to get vaccinated.

The father of a dear friend of mine, who survived Auschwitz, died recently of TB. He'd carried the disease in scars in his lungs when he got it in Auschwitz, and it had stayed dormant until a particular medication he was on made him vulnerable to a recurrence. The treatment finally killed him. Sad.....such a survivor.. and Hitler kind of got him in the end.

It's odd that leprosy still carries such a stigma, since it so relatively uninfectious....I guess AIDS is up there....and in Africa terrible things like fistulas that women develop in giving birth, between the vagina and bladder or bowel.

These women are outcasts....there is an Australian doctor (and a bunch more, I bet, from other countries) who raise money and just go over there and do repair after repair after repair, so that the poor women can have some life.

Yeh, Carville was the place in Louisiana.

dag, I'm surprised you're not acknowledged in every book!

It's hard to describe his appearance other than he looked like someone with leprosy -- like you've seen in movies and photos. Kind of bubbly, light colored patches of skin here and there on his face and hands. Like I said, I could well be wrong but his appearance is what made me start thinking and reading a bit about leprosy.

That was a good link, Phoenix, thanks! It sparked a memory of my sister telling me that when she visited the colony in Hawaii that people told her they stayed there because it was just so much easier; it was home.

I can't say that I'm really surprised that it still carries a stigma. It isn't really something people think about much anymore. Think of the stigma that a head lice infestation still has!

I've seen that Australian doctor on TV before, I think it was on "60 Minutes". She's AMAZING!