19th Century
Louisiana had very few written records concerning leprosy until the mid-1800s. The 1850 U.S. Census listed leprosy as a cause of death and recorded four deaths from the disease in Louisiana. [4]
Beginning in 1857, annual reports from Charity Hospital (New Orleans) indicated that the hospital freely admitted those with leprosy. The large number of cases at Charity Hospital remained unreported to the general public until 1888. This data (known as the Blanc Data, after the doctor that released it) made it apparent that, contrary to popular belief, leprosy was occurring regularly in New Orleans, especially among white citizens. [5]
In the 1880s, the incidence rate of leprosy in Louisiana was 4.5 per 100,000 people. [6] By the 1890s, it was widely accepted that leprosy existed in Louisiana. But the way in which the disease was transmitted was unknown, and there was no cure. When a story in the Daily Picayune alerted residents that a physician, under state contract, was caring for leprosy patients in a "pest-house" near Bayou St. John in New Orleans, a clamor went up for new laws to be passed. This led to the passage of Louisiana Act 85 in 1890, requiring that all people with leprosy in Louisiana be confined in an institution. [7]
Such an institution, The Louisiana Leper Home, was established in 1892 on an abandoned sugar plantation known as Indian Camp in Iberville Parish. [8] [9] Located near present-day Carville, Louisiana, this was the first in-patient hospital in the U.S. for the treatment of leprosy. [10] The first seven patients arrived on December 1, 1894. [11] At first, they lived in what had been slaves' cabins. [12] Four Catholic sisters from the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul came to care for these patients. [13] They were housed in a dilipidated mansion on the site of the former plantation. [14] There were several name changes over the years (see "Life at Carville"), but the treatment center was frequently referred to as "Carville" because of its location. The goal of this treatment center was to provide a place for patients to be isolated and treated humanely. [15] By 1896, there were 31 patients at the leprosarium.
20th century
In 1921 the U.S. Public Health Service took over the facility and funded a budget toward leprosy research. By the late 1920s, Louisiana's incidence rate of leprosy reached an all-time high of 12 per 100,000. [16] However, leprosy never became an epidemic in Louisiana. The number of residents living at Carville peaked about 400 people. [17]
Medical and therapeutic advances, a decreasing patient population and federal budget cutting put Carville's future in jeopardy by the early 1990s. [18] In 1998 the U.S. government offered to pay the remaining patients $33,000 annually if they left the facility and never returned. 45 patients accepted the offer to leave, but more than 80 remained on the site. By 2015 all of them were gone. [19]
21st Century
As of 2001, there were fifteen total leprosy, or Hansen's Disease, cases reported in Louisiana. Thirteen of those reported cases were endemic. These thirteen endemic cases came from thirteen different parishes in Louisiana. However, most of these cases were concentrated in the southern half of the state. [20]
Carville is now the home of The National Hansen's Disease Museum. [21] Several out-patient care clinics around the United States provide primary treatment and medication of leprosy.. [22]
