The Centenary of the Leprosy Relief Association (Lepra)-a moment for celebration and reflection†.

The year 2024 is the Centenary of the foundation of the Leprosy Relief Association (Lepra), formerly the British Empire Leprosy Relief Association (BELRA). The name of the organization changed to the LEProsy Relief Association (LEPRA) in 1976 but has been known as Lepra since 2008. Over the years it has worked closely with members and office holders of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. Its work has encompassed activities from the earliest initiatives to ensure appropriate living conditions for those with the disease to the development of leprosy chemotherapy. However, this has now evolved into a strong partnership between the UK- and India-based Lepra hubs, which are carrying out research and public health initiatives ranging from elimination of prejudice against those with leprosy to adopting the recently launched WHO programme for skin NTDs to facilitate integrated control and management regimens. The fight against leprosy has always been a partnership between a wide variety of disease-specific NGOs, health-care workers and international health agencies. The story of Lepra illustrates the central role of these partnerships and national as well as international collaboration.

Socio-historical representations of a disease: a study of posters from campaigns against Hansen's disease during the second half of the twentieth century. / Representações sócio-históricas de uma doença: um estudo sobre cartazes de campanhas para o combate à hanseníase na segunda metade do século XX.

This article analyzes the use of iconographic sources in the context of educational campaigns to combat Hansen's disease from a socio-historical perspective at four points in time: the 1950s, 1960s, 1980s, and 1990s. Four posters are analyzed to identify the elements (textual, visual or graphic) used to develop discourse on this disease and those it affected and transformations and permanences in this discourse, as well as to verify how they became part of a narrative of institutional memory linked to public health in the state of São Paulo. These were produced by various public health institutions and are part of the Health Campaign Poster Collection held by the Emílio Ribas Public Health Museum.

Este artigo analisa o uso de fontes iconográficas no contexto das campanhas educativas para o combate à hanseníase numa perspectiva sócio-histórica em quatro momentos: décadas de 1950, 1960, 1980 e 1990. São analisados quatro cartazes para identificar os elementos (textuais, visuais ou gráficos) utilizados para elaborar um discurso sobre a doença e os doentes; suas transformações discursivas e permanências, além de verificar como se tornaram parte de uma narrativa de memória institucional ligada à saúde pública paulista. As fontes estudadas fazem parte da coleção Cartazes de Campanhas de Saúde, cujos itens foram produzidos por diversas instituições ligadas à saúde pública e integram o acervo do Museu de Saúde Pública Emílio Ribas.

From Passos the Indian to Doctor Chernoviz: experiments to cure leprosy in nineteenth-century Pará. / Do índio Passos ao doutor Chernoviz: experiências de cura da lepra no Pará do século XIX.

This article analyzes an experiment to cure leprosy using the assacu plant (Hura crepitans L.) conducted in Santarém, Pará, in 1847, by an Indigenous man named Antonio Vieira dos Passos. The experiment was later repeated in other Brazilian provinces and abroad. This article establishes relationships between medical practices in other parts of the country while focusing on the dialog between official and Indigenous medicine. Newspaper articles and official documents of the time show that Indigenous knowledge of medicinal plants was widely recognized and utilized by physicians wishing to incorporate it into the official therapeutic repertoire.

O artigo analisa uma experiência de cura da lepra com assacu (Hura crepitans L.), realizada em Santarém, Pará, em 1847, por um indígena chamado Antonio Vieira dos Passos. A experiência passou a ser realizada nas demais províncias do Brasil e também no exterior. Por essa razão, o artigo estabelece relações com práticas médicas realizadas em outras partes do país, tendo como foco o diálogo entre a medicina oficial e a medicina indígena. A análise de matérias de jornais e documentos oficiais revelou que os saberes indígenas sobre o uso de plantas medicinais eram amplamente reconhecidos e utilizados pelos médicos com a intenção de incorporá-los em seu repertório terapêutico.

Alice Augusta Ball: The African-American chemist who pioneered the first viable treatment for Hansen's Disease.

Alice Augusta Ball (1892-1916) was a young and dynamic chemist who achieved extraordinary milestones in her short lifespan of 24 years. As an African American and as a woman in the early 20th century, her work and achievements set a benchmark. Her breakthrough work on the extraction of the water-soluble ethyl esters of chaulmoogra oil changed the lives of millions of people affected by Hansen's disease who were socially boycotted and segregated to leprosy colonies and asylums. The chaulmoogra oil esters, which continued to be used for almost two decades, were the first viable treatment of leprosy. Unfortunately, Ball did not receive recognition and honor for her work, and she was forgotten soon after her untimely death.

Os planos de Ernesto Ottoni contra o "mal dos lázaros": lazaretos, terapêuticas e trabalho no combate à lepra em São Paulo, século XIX / The plans of Ernesto Ottoni to Combat the "affliction of lepers: "lazarettos, treatments, and endeavors to tackle leprosy in nineteenth century São Paulo

Resumo O trabalho a seguir objetiva apresentar o projeto de estabelecimento de um lazareto para morféticos na cidade de São Paulo em meados do século XIX. Trata-se da transcrição e análise de um parecer elaborado pelo médico Ernesto Benedicto Ottoni e endereçado ao presidente da província de São Paulo. Analisamos os planos da construção do prédio, principalmente levando em consideração a teoria dos miasmas; concepções sobre as terapêuticas da lepra na época, sobretudo quanto à transmissibilidade da doença; e, por fim, a idealização do médico acerca das rotinas de tratamento, trabalho, lazer e recuperação dos doentes.

Abstract This article presents the plans for a lazaretto in the city of São Paulo in the mid-nineteenth century. It consists of the transcription and analysis of an opinion prepared by the physician Ernesto Benedicto Ottoni, addressed to the president of the province of São Paulo. The article includes an analysis of the plans for the building, bearing in mind the prevailing miasma theory; the contemporary conceptions of leprosy treatment, especially beliefs regarding the transmissibility of the disease; and the physician's idealization of the routines for the treatment, work, leisure, and recovery of patients.

Pathogen genomics study of an early medieval community in Germany reveals extensive co-infections.

BACKGROUND: The pathogen landscape in the Early European Middle Ages remains largely unexplored. Here, we perform a systematic pathogen screening of the rural community Lauchheim "Mittelhofen," in present-day Germany, dated to the Merovingian period, between fifth and eighth century CE. Skeletal remains of individuals were subjected to an ancient DNA metagenomic analysis. Genomes of the detected pathogens were reconstructed and analyzed phylogenetically. RESULTS: Over 30% of the individuals exhibit molecular signs of infection with hepatitis B virus (HBV), parvovirus B19, variola virus (VARV), and Mycobacterium leprae. Seven double and one triple infection were detected. We reconstructed four HBV genomes and one genome each of B19, VARV, and M. leprae. All HBV genomes are of genotype D4 which is rare in Europe today. The VARV strain exhibits a unique pattern of gene loss indicating that viruses with different gene compositions were circulating in the Early Middle Ages. The M. leprae strain clustered in branch 3 together with the oldest to-date genome from the UK. CONCLUSIONS: The high burden of infectious disease, together with osteological markers of physiological stress, reflect a poor health status of the community. This could have been an indirect result of the climate decline in Europe at the time, caused by the Late Antique Little Ice Age (LALIA). Our findings suggest that LALIA may have created an ecological context in which persistent outbreaks set the stage for major epidemics of severe diseases such as leprosy and smallpox hundreds of years later.

History of leprosy in India: An overview of historic and modern contributions.

Traditionally, India holds the unenviable position of the origin of leprosy. The disease is thought to have spread, via trade and war, to China, Egypt, and the Middle East, and later to Europe and the Americas. From antiquity to modernity, Indian society treated leprosy singularly for custom and law, a response shaped by both scientific knowledge and cultural attitudes. Over the past centuries, tireless research by eminent physicians and scientists working in India have helped establish a better understanding of clinical, bacteriologic, pathologic, and immunologic aspects of leprosy. Therapeutic modalities that were initially restricted to chaulmoogra expanded to include newer anti-leprotic medications and even surgical reconstruction of deformities. India's future challenges in leprosy control include stigmata, educational knowledge gaps, and multiple systems of medicine. This contribution is an attempt to comprehensively discuss the historic aspect of this exclusive disease focusing on the varied scientific contributions from India.

Life and death of a leprosy sufferer from the 8th-century-CE cemetery of Kiskundorozsma-Kettoshatár I (Duna-Tisza Interfluve, Hungary)-Biological and social consequences of having Hansen's disease in a late Avar Age population from Hungary.

The aim of our paper is to demonstrate a middle-aged male (KK61) from the 8th-century-CE cemetery of Kiskundorozsma-Kettoshatár I (Duna-Tisza Interfluve, Hungary), who appears to represent the lepromatous form of Hansen's disease. Leprosy has affected not only the rhinomaxillary region of his face but also his lower limbs, with severe deformation and disfigurement of the involved anatomical areas (saddle-nose and flat-foot deformity, respectively). Consequently, he would have experienced disability in performing the basic activities of daily living, such as eating, drinking, standing or walking; and thus, he would have required regular and substantial care from others to survive. Despite his very visible disease and associated debility, it seems that KK61 was accepted as a member of the community in death, since he has been buried within the cemetery boundaries, among others from his community. In addition, his grave has conformed to the mortuary practices characteristic of the Kiskundorozsma-Kettoshatár I cemetery (e.g., burial orientation, position of the body in the grave, and type and quantity of accompanying grave goods). Although distinction or segregation in life do not preclude normative treatment in death, the long-lasting survival of KK61 with Hansen's disease implies that he would not have been abandoned but cared for by others. KK61 is one of the few published historic cases with leprosy from the Avar Age of the Hungarian Duna-Tisza Interfluve. His case gives us a unique insight into the biological consequences of living with Hansen's disease and illustrates the social attitude toward leprosy sufferers in early mediaeval Hungary.

A probable case of leprosy from colonial period St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Southeastern Caribbean.

OBJECTIVE: To document and differentially diagnose facial pathology found in an isolated skull from St. Vincent and the Grenadines, southeastern Caribbean. To directly date this individual using radiocarbon dating. MATERIALS: Isolated skull recovered from Petite Mustique Island. METHODS: Describe facial pathology occurring in this individual and compare with known diseases or disease processes that impact the craniofacial complex. RESULTS: Features of the rhinomaxillary syndrome are present, indicating a diagnosis of leprosy. Dating places the time of death to the late 18th or early 19th centuries. CONCLUSIONS: Analysis of the rhinomaxillary syndrome produces a diagnosis of early-stage leprosy in an individual that correlates with the apparent attempt to locate a leprosarium on Petite Mustique Island in the first decade of the 19th century. SIGNIFICANCE: Location and time corroborate historical records of at least one attempt to locate a leprosarium on Petite Mustique Island. Only directly dated individual with leprosy in the western hemisphere and possibly the earliest yet recorded. LIMITATIONS: This is an isolated find that is archaeologically unprovenienced. SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH: Professional archaeological survey of Petite Mustique.

Leprosy in medieval Denmark: Exploring life histories through a multi-tissue and multi-isotopic approach.

OBJECTIVES: By focusing on two Danish leprosaria (Naestved and Odense; 13th-16th c. CE) and using diet and origin as proxies, we follow a multi-isotopic approach to reconstruct life histories of patients and investigate how leprosy affected both institutionalized individuals and the medieval Danish community as a whole. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We combine archaeology, historical sources, biological anthropology, isotopic analyses (δ13 C, δ15 N, δ34 S, 87 Sr/86 Sr) and radiocarbon dating, and further analyze bones with different turnover rates (ribs and long bones). RESULTS: The δ13 C, δ15 N and δ34 S results indicate a C3 terrestrial diet with small contributions of marine protein for leprosy patients and individuals from other medieval Danish sites. A similar diet is seen through time, between males and females, and patients with and without changes on facial bones. The isotopic comparison between ribs and long bones reveals no significant dietary change. The δ34 S and 87 Sr/86 Sr results suggest that patients were local to the regions of the leprosaria. Moreover, the radiocarbon dates show a mere 50% agreement with the arm position dating method used in Denmark. CONCLUSIONS: A local origin for the leprosy patients is in line with historical evidence, unlike the small dietary contribution of marine protein. Although only 10% of the analyzed individuals have rib/long bone offsets that undoubtedly show a dietary shift, the data appear to reveal a pattern for 25 individuals (out of 50), with elevated δ13 C and/or δ15 N values in the ribs compared to the long bones, which points toward a communal type of diet and reveals organizational aspects of the institution.

Labor médica de Ernesto Guevara en leprosorios de América Latina / Ernesto Guevara's medical work in leprosarium in Latin America

Dentro de la poca divulgada labor médica de Ernesto Guevara, lo más conocido es su trabajo dentro de la Alergología; pero muy poco se sabe sobre su vínculo con la dermatología, por una enfermedad que castigaba duramente a Sudamérica: la lepra. Este trabajo explica la labor médica de Ernesto Guevara (Che) en diferentes leprosorios durante su primer viaje por América Latina. Durante este viaje, cuando era aún estudiante de medicina, impartió conferencias y ayudó a difundir las verdades sobre la lepra, para que los enfermos fueran aceptados por la sociedad y adecuadamente atendidos por los médicos. Observó críticamente el ambiente de los leprosorios que visitó e hizo recomendaciones para mejorarlos, lo cual favorecería la rehabilitación de los pacientes, a quienes incluso atendió y no solamente les curó el cuerpo, sino también el alma con su humanismo sin prejuicios(AU)

Within Ernesto Guevara's little disclosed medical work, the best known is his work about Allergology; but very little is known about its link with dermatology, due to a disease that harshly punished South America: leprosy. This work explains the medical work of Ernesto Guevara (Che) in different leprosarium during his first trip through Latin America. During this trip, when he was still a medical student, he gave lectures and helped spread the truths about leprosy, so that the sick people were accepted by society and adequately cared for by doctors. He critically observed the environment of the leprosarium he visited and made recommendations to improve them, which would favor the rehabilitation of the patients, whom he even treated and not only healed the body, but also the soul with its humanism without prejudice(AU)

Human major infections: Tuberculosis, treponematoses, leprosy-A paleopathological perspective of their evolution.

The key to evolution is reproduction. Pathogens can either kill the human host or can invade the host without causing death, thus ensuring their own survival, reproduction and spread. Tuberculosis, treponematoses and leprosy are widespread chronic infectious diseases whereby the host is not immediately killed. These diseases are examples of the co-evolution of host and pathogen. They can be well studied as the paleopathological record is extensive, spanning over 200 human generations. The paleopathology of each disease has been well documented in the form of published synthetic analyses recording each known case and case frequencies in the samples they were derived from. Here the data from these synthetic analyses were re-analysed to show changes in the prevalence of each disease over time. A total of 69,379 skeletons are included in this study. There was ultimately a decline in the prevalence of each disease over time, this decline was statistically significant (Chi-squared, p<0.001). A trend may start with the increase in the disease's prevalence before the prevalence declines, in tuberculosis the decline is monotonic. Increase in skeletal changes resulting from the respective diseases appears in the initial period of host-disease contact, followed by a decline resulting from co-adaptation that is mutually beneficial for the disease (spread and maintenance of pathogen) and host (less pathological reactions to the infection). Eventually either the host may become immune or tolerant, or the pathogen tends to be commensalic rather than parasitic.

The first probable evidence of leprosy in a male individual (17th-19th century AD) unearthed in Northern Portugal (Travanca, Santa Maria da Feira).

OBJECTIVE: This study describes the first evidence of a probable paleopathological case of leprosy from northern Portugal. MATERIALS: An adult male, skeleton 403, exhumed from the Christian cemetery associated with the church dedicated to Saint Mamede (Travanca, Santa Maria da Feira), dated from the 17th-19th century AD. METHODS: Standard bioarchaeological methods were used for sex and age-at-death determinations, and leprosy-related bone lesions were identified through macroscopic analysis guided by paleopathological diagnostic criteria. RESULTS: The macroscopic observation revealed probable leprosy-related skeletal lesions, namely tenuous rhinomaxillary changes, bilateral proliferative periosteal reactions on the tibiae and fibulae, as well as concentric atrophy, acro-osteolysis and ankyloses of foot bones. CONCLUSIONS: Skeleton 403 represents a probable case of leprosy according to the nature and distribution pattern of bony lesions observed. SIGNIFICANCE: This finding fills an important gap in the history of leprosy in Portugal. Although historical sources show that the majority of leprosaria were located in the northern part of the country, suggesting that leprosy was more prevalent in this area of Portugal in the past, no paleopathological evidence of this disease was reported for this region to date. Furthermore, the inhumation of a leprosy sufferer in a 17th-19th century AD Christian parish cemetery is deeply imbued with social meaning. SUGGESTION FOR FUTURE RESEARCH: The future detailed study of the remaining skeletons unearthed from the cemetery of the Church of São Mamede will hopefully reveal further osteological evidence of leprosy in addition to the application of ancient DNA analysis to confirm the presence of the pathogen of this disease. Also, further documentary research is needed in order to expand appreciation of the epidemiological and social impact of leprosy in the 17th-19th century AD Portugal.

Além da hanseníase - Histórias de esperança

Os relatos de vida mostram a mudança na trajetória de pessoas acometidas pela hanseníase que encontraram novas oportunidades de geração de renda. Superando as dificuldades de inserção no mercado de trabalho ou de continuar exercendo as mesmas funções, elas conquistam novos espaços a partir da gastronomia e do artesanato. O documentário detalha as atividades do projeto Reabilitação Socioeconômica, iniciado no estado de Rondônia para participantes de grupos de autocuidado em hanseníase. Trata-se de uma iniciativa executada pela Agência Estadual de Vigilância Sanitária de Rondônia (Agevisa/RO), com apoio técnico e financeiro da NHR Brasil, ensinando novas habilidades para que as pessoas envolvidas possam melhorar sua geração de renda.

Do estigma à superação - História de Maria da Silva

Maria da Silva Lima relembra a sua história com a hanseníase. Na década de 1970, ela chegou a ser separada da família por ter a doença. Ela saiu do interior do Amazonas para tentar recomeçar a vida em Rondônia. Muitos anos depois, a participação em um grupo de autocuidado e no projeto de reabilitação socioeconômica abriu novos caminhos para superar as marcas da discriminação. Os relatos integram o documentário Além da Hanseníase - Histórias de Esperança. Para conferir o material completo: youtu.be/dy1q46Ah8dY

PODCAST Minutos para a Hanseníase - EPISÓDIO # 1 - O que é a hanseníase?

Pessoas nas ruas e jovens escolhem as perguntas sobre o que eles conhecem da hanseníase de uma forma geral. Convidamos os nossos entrevistados e você, ouvinte, a refletir algumas: questões os principais aspectos da doença, o acesso a informações educativas e o estigma associado à hanseníase. Neste primeiro episódio, contamos com a participação de Sacha Nogueira, professora do Departamento de Enfermagem da Universidade Federal do Ceará (UFC) e coordenadora da Liga Acadêmica em Doenças Estigmatizantes (Lades / UFC). Na conversa, trazemos um contexto histórico da hanseníase, informações iniciais sobre sinais e sintomas, o panorama atual no Brasil e respostas às dúvidas dos jovens fontes.