The Face of Leprosy

Leprosy, otherwise known as Hanson’s Disease, is a neglected disease that poses enduring unmet medical and social needs due to lack of affordable, accessible, and easy to use treatments.  Affecting the skin, peripheral nerves, respiratory tract, and the eyes, the disease greatly impacts the victim.  The disease is considered “slightly contagious,” and although transmission is not clearly understood, proximity of contact and respiratory route are most likely.  Highly-effective multi-drug therapy is available and elimination of the disease is possible, but a medical cure does not prevent ongoing loss of limbs and blindness due to nerve damage caused by Mycobacterium leprae and Mycobacterium lepromatosis.  The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that leprosy continues to impact over 5 million people world-wide, with about 300,000 to 400,000 new cases a year, mostly in India and surrounding Southeast Asian countries.  Globally over 3 million people are permanently disabled as a result of leprosy.
As with most diseases in the developing world, poverty is both a cause and result of disease.  The indirect effects on people afflicted with leprosy are very harsh, and includes social isolation, poverty, weaker immune systems, and permanent disability.  Due to social isolation imparted by their culture, victims’ needs, including those most basic such as food, water, and shelter, are often neglected.  Even after treatment for leprosy, victims continue to be socially isolated in the colonies due to social taboos and fears that are very strong and permeate the culture.  Once confined to a leprosy village, reentering society is nearly impossible.
These villages, which are usually between 1.5 to 100 acres, house between 50 and 250 people, although some are larger.  Contrary to belief, most village citizens do not have leprosy but are of families in which leprosy exists.  Loosely confederated through a council, many of these villages elect a President who works closely with Embrace a Village to ensure our programs are meeting real needs.