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| Evelina Juba, Leprosy Village, South Sudan |
This Sunday is World Leprosy Day 2013, but few
people are likely to take notice. Few might even know that leprosy still exists
today. But it does: it affects more than 15 million people across the
world and each year nearly a quarter of a million new cases are detected: that is almost one person diagnosed every two minutes. Over half of all newly-reported cases occur in
India.
It might be the oldest disease
known to mankind, but it is very much
a disease of our time - a disease of poverty caused by a bacillus called Mycobacterium
Leprae (a distant relative of the TB bacillus). Most people are naturally
immune and the disease is easily cured with multi-drug therapy, but the majority
of people affected live in developing countries where resources are scarce and
poverty is widespread.
South Sudan is a case in point. Unofficial
data points to the UN’s newest member state as having the world’s highest
prevalence of leprosy. After
decades of civil war, South Sudan became an independent country in 2011. But nearly two years after its
independence, its people face a daily struggle for survival with severe food
shortages. Recent field trips made by The Leprosy Mission England and Wales
revealed a woeful lack of healthcare available to those affected by this
devastating disease.
The charity’s head of programmes
coordination, Sian Arulanantham, said: “I witnessed such abject poverty in South Sudan and
there is a real humanitarian crisis within this new nation. Leprosy is
thriving in the squalid conditions in which people are forced to live and there
are insubstantial health services available to diagnosis and treat what becomes
an extremely debilitating disease.”
The charity is working with the government of South Sudan to try to alleviate
some of the suffering people with leprosy have to endure.
While leprosy is not very
contagious, the fear and stigma associated with it are – and that’s what makes
it such a difficult disease to eradicate. Bible-old stigma and discrimination
are still prevalent today and see entire families having their job
opportunities, education, marriage prospects and dreams shattered.
Fear fuels a vicious circle which
begins with people hiding the first telltale patches on their skin in order to
avoid being shunned by their families and driven to the fringes of society. Since 1982, leprosy is easily cured with a simple course of
antibiotics, but if left untreated, it can cause irreversible disabilities. The
antibiotics can halt the progression of the disease,
but cannot undo the damage. Leprosy causes nerve problems, which can lead
to a loss of sensation in the hands and feet, meaning everyday activities are
fraught with danger. Burns go unrecognized and stones in shoes unnoticed,
causing ulcers and bone resorption. The resulting disability can lead to
the amputation of limbs. Leprosy also damages nerves in the face causing
problems with blinking, eventually leading to blindness.
On
World Leprosy Day 2013, The Leprosy Mission of England and Wales is urging
government and people to “concentrate on breaking the cycle of poverty which,
along with stigma, sees leprosy remain a 21st century disease.”
