Murlidhar Devidas Amte, popularly known as Baba Amte, was an Indian social worker and social activist known particularly for his work for the rehabilitation and empowerment of people suffering from leprosy. He has received numerous awards and prizes including the Padma Vibhushan, the Dr. Ambedkar International Award, the Gandhi Peace Prize, the Ramon Magsaysay Award, the Templeton Prize and the Jamnalal Bajaj Award. He is also known as the modern Gandhi of India.
A leper colony, also known by many other names, is an isolated community for the quarantining and treatment of lepers, people suffering from leprosy.
M. leprae, the bacterium responsible for leprosy, is believed to have spread from East Africa through the Middle East, Europe, and Asia by the 5th century before reaching the rest of the world more recently. Historically, leprosy was believed to be extremely contagious and divinely ordained, leading to enormous stigma against its sufferers. Other severe skin diseases were frequently conflated with leprosy and all such sufferers were kept away from the general public, although some religious orders provided medical care and treatment. Recent research has shown M. leprae has maintained a similarly virulent genome over at least the last thousand years, leaving it unclear which precise factors led to leprosy's near elimination in Europe by 1700. A growing number of cases following the first wave of European colonization, however, led to increased attention towards leprosy during the New Imperialism of the late 19th century. Following G.A. Hansen's discovery of the role of M. leprae in the disease, the First International Leprosy Conference held in Berlin in 1897 renewed interest and investment in the isolation of lepers throughout the European colonial empires. Although Western countries now generally treat cases of leprosy individually on an outpatient basis, traditional isolated colonies continue to exist in India, China, and some other countries.
The Grant Government Medical College is a public medical college located in Mumbai, India. It is affiliated to the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences. Founded in 1845, it is one of the oldest medical colleges in South Asia. Its clinical affiliate is Sir J.J. Group of Hospitals, a conglomerate of four hospitals in South Mumbai including Sir J.J. Hospital, St George Hospital, Gokuldas Tejpal Hospital and Cama and Albless Hospital.
Peel Island is a small heritage-listed island located in Moreton Bay, east of Brisbane, in South East Queensland, Australia. The island is a locality within the local government area of Redland City and a national park named Teerk Roo Ra National Park and Conservation Park.
The Tata Memorial Hospital (TMH) situated in Parel, Mumbai, is a cancer institute. It is an autonomous institution under the administrative control of Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India.
Poladpur is a census town in Raigad district in the Indian state of Maharashtra.
Ruth Katherina Martha Pfau, FCM was a German–Pakistani Catholic Christian religious sister and physician who was a member of the "Society of the Daughters of the Heart of Mary". She emigrated from Germany in 1961 and devoted more than 55 years of her life to fighting leprosy in Pakistan. Pfau was honoured with the Hilal-i-Pakistan-, Hilal-i-Imtiaz-, Nishan-i-Quaid-i-Azam-, and the Sitara-i-Quaid-i-Azam awards.
Leprosy stigma is a type of social stigma, a strong negative feeling towards a person with leprosy relating to their moral status in society. It is also referred to as leprosy-related stigma, leprostigma, and stigma of leprosy. Since ancient times, leprosy instilled the practice of fear and avoidance in many societies because of the associated physical disfigurement and lack of understanding behind its cause. Because of the historical trauma the word "leprosy" invokes, the disease is now referred to as Hansen's disease, named after Gerhard Armauer Hansen who discovered Mycobacterium leprae, the bacterial agent that causes Hansen's disease. Those who have suffered from Hansen's disease describe the impact of social stigma as far worse than the physical manifestations despite it being only mildly contagious and pharmacologically curable. This sentiment is echoed by Weis and Ramakrishna, who noted that "the impact of the meaning of the disease may be a greater source of suffering than symptoms of the disease".
Leprosy currently affects approximately a quarter of a million people throughout the world, with the majority of these cases being reported from India.
Institute of Post-Graduate Medical Education and Research and Seth Sukhlal Karnani Memorial Hospital, colloquially known as P.G. Hospital, is a public medical college and hospital located in Kolkata, India. It is a national research institute.
Father Muller Charitable Institutions (FMCI) is an organisation established in 1880 which regulates the religious minority educational and medical institutions founded by Father Augustus Muller. The FMCI is run by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Mangalore.
The Culion leper colony is a former leprosarium located on Culion, an island in the Palawan province of the Philippines. It was established by the U.S. government in order to rid leprosy from the Philippine Islands through the only method known at the time: isolating all existing cases and gradually phasing out the disease from the population. In addition to segregating the disease from the rest of the population, the island was later established in order to offer a better opportunity for people afflicted with leprosy to receive adequate care and modern treatments.
Tower Psychiatric Hospital is a government-funded psychiatric hospital and psychosocial rehabilitation Centre in the Raymond Mhlaba Local Municipality area of Fort Beaufort, Eastern Cape in South Africa. It provides long-term psychiatric care and psychosocial rehabilitation services to the entire Eastern Cape. The hospital has a full-time psychiatrist since December 2015.
The history of leprosy was traced to its origins by an international team of 22 geneticists using comparative genomics of the worldwide distribution of Mycobacterium leprae. Monot et al. (2005) determined that leprosy originated in East Africa or the Near East and traveled with humans along their migration routes, including those of trade in goods and slaves. The four strains of M. leprae are based in specific geographic regions where each predominantly occurs:
Hansen House is a historic building in the Talbiya neighborhood of Jerusalem, Israel established in 1887 as a leprosy hospital known as "Jesu-Hilfe" in German, a name still visible on the façade.
Noshir Hormasji Antia was an Indian plastic surgeon and social worker, known for his pioneering contributions to the treatment and rehabilitation of people afflicted with leprosy. He was the founder of three notable non governmental organizations, Foundation for Research in Community Health (FRCH), Foundation for Medical Research (FMR) and the National Society for Equal Opportunities for the Handicapped (NASEOH), all working in the field of rehabilitation of patients, cured or otherwise. The Government of India awarded him the fourth highest civilian award of Padma Shri in 1990.
Nora Neve (1873-1952) was a British nurse and medical missionary with the Church Missionary Society who pioneered missionary nursing. Her work was instrumental in the development of the Kashmir Mission Hospital in Srinagar. She was the hospital's first Superintendent of Nursing and led education and cleanliness initiatives. Neve also recorded and published records of Kashmiri hospital practices in the American Journal of Nursing, contributing to the tool kits of other missionaries and preserving a part of Kashmir's cultural history.
Edward George Horder was an English medical missionary to China notable for his work with leprosy patients. As a member of the Church Missionary Society (C.M.S.), Horder spent 25 years in the city of Pakhoi–now Beihai–building and operating the first mission hospital in the Guangdong province. In addition to becoming the second-largest C.M.S. mission hospital in China, Horder's Pakhoi mission station was the first institution in the region to treat leprosy patients. Even after Horder's departure, the hospital remained a health center in Beihai and was the site of service for a generation of new missionaries. Although the leper wing closed in 1936, the hospital itself still survives as the Beihai People Hospital.
Vijaykumar Vinayak Dongre is a medical doctor from Mumbai who has devoted his entire life for the eradication of leprosy in the urban and rural areas, including the tribal areas, in the Indian State of Maharashtra. According to some estimates, there were approximately 40 lakh leprosy patients in India in 1981, but after the efforts of Dongre and others this has come down to 83,000. Dongre is affiliated to The Society for Eradication of Leprosy, Mumbai and is serving the Society as its Honorary Secretary. Dongre was associated with Acworth Leprosy Hospital, Mumbai as the Medical Superintendent for nearly 35 years and with Gandhi Memorial Foundation, Wardha as a director for nearly 8 years.
The Rawalpindi Leprosy Hospital is a non-profit leprosy hospital in Pakistan. It is among the oldest leprosy hospitals in the region.
