Post by nina on Jan 29, 2006 15:07:38 GMT -5
PARIS (AFP) - Sunday is leprosy day -- an attempt to remind the world that this almost forgotten disease still defigures nearly half a million people every year even though it can be cured if caught early enough.
Leprosy has struck fear into humans since time immemorial. It still conjures up terrifying images of mutilation, blindness and exclusion from society.
And far from having disappeared, it is still present in Africa, Asia and Latin America and remains a serious public health concern in nine nations, six of them African.
It also remains a serious social stigma.
More than one person in 10,000 has leprosy in Angola, Brazil, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, India, Madagascar, Mozambique, Nepal and Tanzania. Together, these countries accounted for 84 percent of all cases recorded worldwide in 2004 and 74 percent in 2005.
Thanks to supplies of free treatment from the World Health Organisation (WHO) -- an efficient combination of antibiotics taken for between six months and a year -- the number of new cases is falling, particularly in India.
More than 14 million people have been cured with this multi-drug treatment in the past 20 years.
But the WHO still detected more than 400,000 new cases of leprosy in 114 countries in 2004, the last year for which complete figures are available.
There are several reasons for the persistence of a disease that has been consigned to history in much of the developed world.
One is the time it takes for the characteristic patches of dead flesh to reveal themselves. The average is two to five years but in some cases the disease can incubate for 20.
Another reason is ignorance, although the WHO and other organisations are doing much to educate people and pass on the message that treatment is available and free.
Contrary to popular belief, leprosy is not particularly contagious. It is transmitted by nasal droplets and requires a person to come into close and regular contact with a carrier.
But this misconception has added to one of the main barriers to eradicating leprosy -- the stigma attached to the disease.
In countries such as India and Madagascar, it is considered to be a divine curse.
Those affected may be chased out of their villages, barred from attending school, shunned in marriage, unable to make a living because no one will buy their goods.
"Prejudice is still strong and people with the disease still hide. Information doesn't get to them so you have to go from house to house," Madagascan leprosy specialist Doctor Claude Ratrimoarivony told AFP recently.
"It's a punishment from God. A leper is a 'habokana' -- deformed, bad, taboo," added Doctor Jean-Marie Raotozafindramarofsoty.
He runs a dispensary in the southwestern Madagascan village of Salary-sud and travels around remote villages on a motorbike provided by a French leprosy charity.
He diagnosed infections in half of the eight villages he visited in his free time recently.
Sister Clemence, who works at the hospital in the nearby town of Tulear, said many leprosy sufferers came in for other skin treatments, which was how she was able to detect the disease. They knew they were infected but did not dare say so.
World Leprosy Day -- now its 53rd year -- is designed to raise awareness that the disease still plagues the lives of hundreds of thousands of people and raise funds to combat it.
The Catholic Order of Malta says funds are desperately needed not only to train health workers to fight leprosy and care for those it leaves handicapped for life but also to help cured lepers reintegrate into societies that have rejected them.
Leprosy has struck fear into humans since time immemorial. It still conjures up terrifying images of mutilation, blindness and exclusion from society.
And far from having disappeared, it is still present in Africa, Asia and Latin America and remains a serious public health concern in nine nations, six of them African.
It also remains a serious social stigma.
More than one person in 10,000 has leprosy in Angola, Brazil, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, India, Madagascar, Mozambique, Nepal and Tanzania. Together, these countries accounted for 84 percent of all cases recorded worldwide in 2004 and 74 percent in 2005.
Thanks to supplies of free treatment from the World Health Organisation (WHO) -- an efficient combination of antibiotics taken for between six months and a year -- the number of new cases is falling, particularly in India.
More than 14 million people have been cured with this multi-drug treatment in the past 20 years.
But the WHO still detected more than 400,000 new cases of leprosy in 114 countries in 2004, the last year for which complete figures are available.
There are several reasons for the persistence of a disease that has been consigned to history in much of the developed world.
One is the time it takes for the characteristic patches of dead flesh to reveal themselves. The average is two to five years but in some cases the disease can incubate for 20.
Another reason is ignorance, although the WHO and other organisations are doing much to educate people and pass on the message that treatment is available and free.
Contrary to popular belief, leprosy is not particularly contagious. It is transmitted by nasal droplets and requires a person to come into close and regular contact with a carrier.
But this misconception has added to one of the main barriers to eradicating leprosy -- the stigma attached to the disease.
In countries such as India and Madagascar, it is considered to be a divine curse.
Those affected may be chased out of their villages, barred from attending school, shunned in marriage, unable to make a living because no one will buy their goods.
"Prejudice is still strong and people with the disease still hide. Information doesn't get to them so you have to go from house to house," Madagascan leprosy specialist Doctor Claude Ratrimoarivony told AFP recently.
"It's a punishment from God. A leper is a 'habokana' -- deformed, bad, taboo," added Doctor Jean-Marie Raotozafindramarofsoty.
He runs a dispensary in the southwestern Madagascan village of Salary-sud and travels around remote villages on a motorbike provided by a French leprosy charity.
He diagnosed infections in half of the eight villages he visited in his free time recently.
Sister Clemence, who works at the hospital in the nearby town of Tulear, said many leprosy sufferers came in for other skin treatments, which was how she was able to detect the disease. They knew they were infected but did not dare say so.
World Leprosy Day -- now its 53rd year -- is designed to raise awareness that the disease still plagues the lives of hundreds of thousands of people and raise funds to combat it.
The Catholic Order of Malta says funds are desperately needed not only to train health workers to fight leprosy and care for those it leaves handicapped for life but also to help cured lepers reintegrate into societies that have rejected them.