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World Leprosy Day

Writer's picture: RevShirleyMurphyRevShirleyMurphy

January 26, 2025, is World Leprosy Day. As we mark this day, I ask you to turn your thoughts towards all those suffering from leprosy, also known as Hansen’s disease.

World Leprosy Day (WLD) is celebrated worldwide on the last Sunday of January every year.


The only exception is India, where it is always held on January 30th, the anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi’s death. It was established by French journalist Raoul Follereau in 1954 to campaign for those affected by the disease.


Leprosy or otherwise known as Hansen’s Disease is quite rare here in UK. The World Health Organization has it listed as a tropical disease. Being born and brought up in India I have vivid memories of people in India who had this dreaded disease. Modern medicine has made great strides towards eradicating it. In the 1980s, there were 5.2 million cases globally, but by 2020 this decreased to fewer than 200,000.


Most new cases occur in 14 countries, with India accounting for more than half. About 200 cases per year are reported in the United States, with the hot and humid state Florida being the hotbed.


Multi Drug Therapy (a combination of three different antibiotics) is the only cure for leprosy and it is available free of charge across the world through the World Health Organization (WHO).


Leprosy is a disease as old as the Bible. For much of its long history its cause was unknown. Once mistaken for a hereditary condition or thought of as divine punishment, leprosy is caused by a type of bacteria called Mycobacterium leprae or, less commonly,  Mycobacterium lepromatosis, and is only mildly infectious.


With the introduction of WHO-recommended multidrug therapy (MDT) in the early 1980s, leprosy became easier to treat. Based on the impact of MDT, a World Health Assembly resolution in 1991 set the goal of eliminating leprosy as a public health problem at the global level by the year 2000, with elimination defined as a disease prevalence of less than 1 case per 10,000 population. This was duly achieved, and by 2010, all but a handful of countries had eliminated leprosy as a public health problem at the national level. The number of leprosy patients worldwide has fallen from around 5 million in the 1980s to less than 200,000 new cases reported each year today.


But leprosy still exists. Partly because of the disruption caused by the recent COVID-19 pandemic, there are people in some countries without access to desperately needed treatment. There are people living with disabilities caused by leprosy who need lifelong support, and many people affected by leprosy and their families still face discrimination and marginalization based on old stereotypes and superstitions.


Fear of discrimination makes some people reluctant to seek treatment. Others are misdiagnosed because health workers do not recognize the symptoms of leprosy, and their condition worsens. Still others do not receive appropriate treatment, especially for painful and potentially fatal leprosy reactions.


We must work harder to ensure that health systems are able to deal appropriately with each patient, and that health workers and the general public are aware of leprosy. We must not allow neglect, ignorance or indifference to get in the way.


I have supported The Leprosy Mission for many years especially since I worked with Leprosy and TB patients during my time in Mother Theresa's Ashram when I was in India.


They mention that “Leprosy is a mildly infectious disease. It is spread by a bacteria

called M.leprae and most people are not at risk of developing leprosy if they are exposed to this bacteria”.


When Jesus was on earth there was no cure for leprosy. And being diagnosed with leprosy was a death sentence, physically, socially, economically, and spiritually. In fact, rabbinic tradition, as Chuck Swindoll explains, “held that curing leprosy was as difficult as raising the dead, perhaps because they saw the disease as the physical manifestation of sin’s consequences.” A leper was considered physically unclean, contagious, as well as spiritually unclean. That meant a leper was completely shunned from normal activities of community life and banned from inclusion in worship in the temple or any synagogue. The leper couldn’t hold a job, couldn’t live in a home with non-lepers (including his or her own family), couldn’t shop in a market, couldn’t own property, couldn’t touch or hug or hold hands. Nothing. The leper’s only option was begging for scraps, isolation, and waiting to physically deteriorate and die.


Depending on the Bible version being used, the word leprosy is mentioned upwards of 40 times in the Bible. In Mark 1:40-42 it reads, “A man with leprosy came and knelt in front of Jesus, begging to be healed. “If you are willing, you can heal me and make me clean,” he said.  Moved with compassion, Jesus reached out and touched him. “I am willing,” he said. “Be healed!”  Instantly the leprosy disappeared, and the man was healed.” Jesus reached out and literally touched the man society had rejected as untouchable. Such compassion.


In its early stages, symptoms of leprosy can be as simple as a running nose, pain in the joints and a feeling of fatigue. But as the disease progresses, it will attack the nerve endings in a persons nervous systems. So that touch sensors and pain sensors no longer work like they should. A person with leprosy might step on a thorn or nail and feel nothing. When it becomes infected they still feel nothing. Or the person with leprosy might wash their face in scalding water. The person with leprosy would not have felt it. That scalding water could cause scarring on the face which could even cause that person to go blind. Going back to the man with leprosy that Jesus healed, I can’t even imagine what it would have felt like to feel the touch of Jesus. After not feeling anything for so long. And it was in that touch that Jesus showed the man how much He as the Son of God loved him.


We really owe a lot to the Christian Missionary doctors whose work and research greatly improved the lives of those who suffer with leprosy today. They have been the hands and feet of Jesus, while going to places and ministering with people who no one else dared. One of those missionary doctors, was Dr. Paul Brand. Dr. Brand pioneered the idea that the loss of fingers and toes in leprosy was due entirely to infection and was thus preventable. Because leprosy attacks chiefly the nervous system, resultant tissue abuse occurs because the patient loses the warnings of pain. Not because of inherent decay brought on by the disease. In the late 1940s, he became the first surgeon in the world to use reconstructive surgery to correct the deformities of leprosy in the hands and feet. Dr Margaret Brand (Paul Brand’s wife) devoted herself to researching methods to prevent blindness in persons with leprosy. Mr. and Mrs. Brand served many years with The Leprosy Mission. In retirement back in the United States, Dr Brand continued to contribute to leprosy work through his advisory role to The Leprosy Mission and to the World Health Organization. After a lifetime of service Dr. Paul Brand passed from this earth on July 8, 2003. He was 89. His wife Margaret passed away on November 17, 2014. She was 95.


On World Leprosy Day 2025, let’s unite under the WHO’s banner “Towards Zero Leprosy” and work together to end discrimination and ensure that everyone affected by leprosy receives the treatment and support they need. We must not forget leprosy.

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