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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".
Kensuke Mitsuda was a Japanese leprologist and director of the Tama Zenshoen Sanatorium (1914–1931) and the National Sanatorium Nagashima Aiseien (1931–1957). He had been at the frontier of leprosy policy of Japan. He was given the Order of Cultural Merits (1951) and Damien-Dutton Award (1961). He has been the cause of admiration from one side, and the target of criticism from the other.
As of 2009, 2,600 former leprosy patients were living in 13 national sanatoriums and 2 private hospitals in Japan. Their mean age is 80. There were no newly diagnosed Japanese leprosy patients in 2005, but one in 2006, and one in 2007.
Matsuki Miyazaki was a Japanese medical doctor, the director of the Kyushu Sanatorium (1934–1958) in Kumamoto, Japan. He studied war and leprosy and found that stress was a great factor in the development of leprosy. He later established a leprosy center belonging to Japan Leprosy Mission of Asia, in India. He died in the Japan Airlines Flight 471 airplane accident in 1972.
Forced Hospitalization at Honmyōji, also called the Honmyōji incident, was the forced hospitalization of leprosy patients living near Honmyō-ji Temple, in the western suburbs of Kumamoto, Japan on July 9, 1940. It is regarded as an incident related to the "No Leprosy Patients in Our Prefecture Movement".
Ryūmyō Tsunawaki was a Japanese Buddhist priest who established a leprosy hospital Minobu Jinkyo-en, in Minobu-cho, Yamanashi-ken, Japan in 1906.
Kikuchi Keifuen Sanatorium or National Sanatorium Kikuchi Keifuen is a sanatorium for leprosy patients or ex-leprosy patients at Kohshi-shi, Kumamoto-ken, Japan founded in 1909. The mean age of residents (ex-patients) is about eighty.
Tōhoku Shinseien Sanatorium or National Sanatorium Tōhoku Shinseien is a sanatorium for leprosy or ex-leprosy patients situated in Tome-shi, Miyagi-ken, Japan, founded in 1939.
Oku-Kōmyō-En Sanatorium (光明園), or National Sanatorium Oku-Kōmyō-En is a sanatorium for leprosy and ex-leprosy patients on the island of Nagashima, Oku-machi, Setouchi, Okayama, Japan. The same island holds the National Sanatorium Nagashima Aiseien. As of December 2, 2005, the Oku-Kōmyō-En housed 252 residents.
Heibei Okamura (1852–1934) produced Japan's finest "Okamura's" chaulmoogra oil,, between about 1892 and 1944 at Sakai, Osaka, Japan. Chaulmoogra oil, which is taken from capsular fruits of Hydnocarpus genus trees of Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, had been the only one remedy in wide use before Guy Henry Faget proved the efficacy of promin in 1943 Promin started the era of sulfon chemicals and revolutionalized the treatment of leprosy. Okamura was also known for caring for more than 1,000 leprosy patients between 1888 and 1901 in his house.
Chūjō Suketoshi was a Japanese physician, a Hansen's disease researcher, the first director of Matsuoka Hoyoen Sanatorium (1909–1947). He repeatedly reported turpentine spirit preparation he named TR as effective for leprosy.
Isamu Tajiri was a Japanese physician specializing in leprosy. He worked at Nagashima Aiseien Sanatorium, Kikuchi Keifuen Sanatorium and Tama Zenshoen Sanatorium. In 1955, he proposed "acute infiltration" of Tajiri in leprosy.
Shigetaka Takashima was a Japanese physicist and medical researcher. He worked in Kuryu Rakusen-en Sanatorium, Tohoku Shinseien Sanatorium, Suruga Sanatorium and Nagashima Aiseien Sanatorium.
Masayuki Kawamura was a Japanese physician who worked at Kikuchi Keifuen Sanatorium between 1909 and 1933. He was the first physician-director of the sanatorium which like other public sanitoriums would normally have been run by police officials from local stations.
Shunzō Sugimura wrote his lifework "leprosy and social welfare" through fieldwork. He worked at Hoshizuka Keiaien Sanatorium, Manchuria Doukouin Sanatorium and Riddell-Wright Memorial Home for the Aged.
Tairoin Hospital is a hospital for leprosy patients initiated by Jean Marie Corre (1850–1911) in Shimasaki Machi Kumamoto shi, Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan, in 1898, initially hospitalizing patients who gathered around Honmyoji Temple. He was a member of M.E.P. or "Missions Etrangères de Paris". The hospital started with the arrival of 5 sisters from the "Franciscan Missionaries of Mary" in 1898. The name of the hospital was changed to Biwazaki Tairo Hospital in 1952, and then to Tairo Clinic in 1996. The number of in-patients was 121 in 1948, and was 8 in 2008.
Mamoru Uchida was an ophthalmologist who worked for leprosy patients at Kyushu Sanatorium, Nagashima Aiseien Sanatorium, and Matsuoka Hoyoen Sanatorium. He taught leprosy patients tanka, in these sanatoriums. Later, he studied social welfare as a professor at Kumamoto Junior College. He extensively studied the history of leprosy, and presented many documents to the Kumamoto Prefectural Library as Uchida Library; 338 items were shown at an exhibition of Hansen's disease and literature in 2003.
Kikuchi Medical Prison was a prison in Kōshi City, Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan, where criminals with leprosy were imprisoned between 1953 and 1996. The formal name is Kikuchi Medical Branch Prison of Kumamoto Prison under the Ministry of Justice.
Hakaru Miyagawa worked at Tama Zenshoen Sanatorium, Nagashima Aiseien Sanatorium, Okinawa Airakuen Sanatorium, Hoshizuka Keiaien Sanatorium and studied the history of leprosy.
Tatsudaryō Incident or Kurokamikō Incident occurred in 1954, when children of leprosy patients were denied public schooling because parents of the public school children feared their children might contract leprosy. This became national news. The issues were the right of children to attend public school despite their parents illness, the right of the general public to avoid contagion, the accuracy of the predictions made by the medical community, and the rights of the local community over national control of education.
References
- Dr. Yutaka Kamikawa, a humanitarian physician (1970) published by Tohoku Shinseien.
- 40th year memorial book of Tohoku Shin-seien (1979) Tohoku Shinsei-en.
